SINGAPORE — Key elements of the newest generation of Boeing’s F-15 fighter — the digital electronic warfare system and fly-by-wire flight controls — are set to begin flight trials on F-15SAs for Saudi Arabia this year. The two technologies are also key elements of Boeing’s pending F-15 Silent Eagle bid in South Korea’s fighter competition.
The $15.1 billion F-35 restructuring — including a cut of 179 fighters through fiscal 2017 — is not expected to trigger a Nunn-McCurdy unit cost overrun, according to the Pentagon’s top procurement officer.
Risk reduction for the advanced strap-on boosters that will be needed to give NASA’s planned Space Launch System (SLS) the 130-metric-ton lift capability to low Earth orbit ordered by Congress will cost as much as $200 million over a 30-month period. The U.S. space agency on Feb. 14 released its expected NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for the advanced-booster risk mitigation, saying that it will make “multiple awards” for analysis and hardware demonstrations “and anticipates $200 million total funding.”
Amid the first real decline in defense budgets in a decade, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta several times committed to protecting the defense industrial base from erosion due to reductions in spending. Panetta was on Capitol Hill Feb. 14 for the first of a trio of hearings this week, defending the Pentagon’s $614 billion fiscal 2013 budget request, and urging lawmakers to avoid deeper cuts to military spending that will occur if Congress fails to reach an agreement on $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction.
Northrop Grumman has filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office over the U.S. Air Force’s award to rival Raytheon of a $76.7 million radar contract. The losing contractor filed the protest Feb. 13, and the Air Force has issued a stop-work order to Raytheon in accordance with acquisition regulations.
SINGAPORE — Lockheed Martin, for the first time, has its Gulfstream GIII Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory (AML) working with an unidentified customer as the company also broadens its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) offerings. The customer is using the aircraft to help develop an ISR concept of operations to specify its requirements for a program that will likely be competed, says Charles Gulledge, program manager for strategic ISR programs at Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions.
SINGAPORE — Stinging losses in high-profile fighter competitions in India and Japan have Boeing refining proposals and bid strategies as the manufacturer eyes several key international contests. The company is looking “to put some new things on the table,” says Jeff Kohler, vice president for business development at Boeing Military Aircraft. The move comes after the F/A-18E/F was eliminated early in India and also lost in Japan to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy‘s proposed fiscal 2013 budget request anchors the aircraft carrier for the coming year and across the proposed Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), but includes a dip in the fleet size from its current number of 11 to 10. “The reduction to ten carriers is a temporary move reflecting the gap between retirement of the Enterprise and arrival of the Ford class,” notes Loren Thompson, a defense analyst for the Lexington Institute. The budget proposal adds $811 million to the CVN-78 Gerard. R. Ford budget across the FYDP.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s fiscal 2013 funding request of $7.75 billion includes a major departure for the agency’s testing regime: shelving the massive Raytheon Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) radar. MDA has long used the radar, which is mounted on a large, floating platform, for providing targeting and discrimination data during flight tests in the Pacific region.
USAF HELOS: The U.S. Air Force is continuing in hopes of buying a new personnel recovery helicopter, after the collapse of its earlier Combat Search and Rescue-X program. The new effort, dubbed the Combat Rescue Helicopter, would begin in fiscal 2013, with buys planned as early as 2016. But the Air Force has once again sidelined an effort to recapitalize its nuclear missile field support helicopters by shelving its plans for a Common Vertical Lift Support Program (CVLSP) rotorcraft and is opting instead to consider buying used Hueys from the U.S.
THE PENTAGON — While the H-1 Huey/Super Cobra garnered increased funding in the fiscal 2013 budget request, the MH-60R, MH-60S and V-22 Osprey all took a hit. The Huey/Super Cobra’s 2013 request is about $852 million for 28 aircraft, compared to about $802 million for 26 helicopters for fiscal 2012.
SINGAPORE — The U.S. and Saudi Arabian governments have finalized the letter of acceptance for the sale of 36 Boeing AH-6i helicopters, marking the formal launch of the program. The deal was concluded in recent weeks, says Jeff Kohler, vice president for business development at Boeing Military Aircraft. The agreement follows completion of contractual discussions last year with Saudi Arabia over the sale of 84 F-15SAs and the refurbishment of 70 F-15S fighters to the “SA” configuration.
New programs to continue research into boost-glide hypersonic weapons for tactical and global precision strike are included in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) $2.82 billion budget request for fiscal 2013.
THE PENTAGON — After years of shipbuilding plans that congressional analysts thought were removed from fiscal reality, the U.S. Navy finally appears to be charting a more realistic course. In years past, analysts at the Congressional Research Service and Congressional Budget Office have said the service simply wanted or said it needed more ships than it could afford with the money it was budgeted to spend.
Andrew Mellon Auditorium Washington, D.C. March 7, 2012 The Aviation Week Laureate Awards recognize individuals and teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation and vision that inspire others to strive for significant broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace. Join us at this black tie dinner and celebrate the best of the industry’s best! www.aviationweek.com/events/current/lau/index.htm
PARIS — Europe’s new Vega rocket lifted off like a streak from its launch pad at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou during a flawless Feb. 13 debut that carried nine satellites to orbit: the Lares laser relativity satellite, Italy’s Almasat-1 and seven cubesats developed by European universities.
Bottom line up front on the U.S. Army’s fiscal 2013 budget request: Communications and rotary-wing aircraft win, most new ground vehicles live to fight another day, and the service’s modernization plans look pretty secure. While the service is being forced to trim about 80,000 soldiers over the next five years, it is still investing in upgrades to existing platforms. In fiscal 2013, the Army plans to spend about $3.6 billion on its top three rotary-wing aviation programs and $10.6 billion on ground vehicle programs, the Defense Department announced Feb. 13.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Air Force’s $154.3 billion fiscal 2013 budget request — roughly $12 billion less than the service requested in 2012 — includes termination of two aircraft efforts aimed at building partnerships with allies, as well as a new missile outlined for use in stealthy aircraft.
The Obama administration is proposing $525.4 billion in fiscal 2013 base defense spending, along with $88.5 billion for overseas operations — the first real reduction in military spending over the last decade. And it proposes to cap future war spending at $450 billion through 2021.
PUT OFF: The U.S. Air Force is effectively punting on procuring a new fast-jet trainer, dashing the hopes of industry players vying to compete for the T-38C replacement program. Aircraft development will begin in the future years defense plan, but there is no significant funding set aside in the fiscal 2013 request. Air Force officials still plan, however, to begin buying a replacement trainer in 2017.
