AFRICA SPENDING: Forecast International (FI) is predicting that African defense budgets will grow at an average of less than 3% per year through 2015, down precipitously from the 2006-2010 compound annual growth rate of 12.96%. Citing Arab Spring revolutions in the north — including major arms buyer Libya — an increase in Islamic fundamentalism activity and several elections that led to political crises, FI analysts say major military procurement purchases are not a priority going into 2012 because several countries are in the midst of recovering from recent conflicts.
The competition is on for the Aegis 16 upgrade program, meant to provide more open architecture and greater capability for the vaunted ship-shield and combat system. Aegis incumbent Lockheed Martin — as well as upstarts Raytheon and Boeing — all acknowledged Dec. 14 that they submitted their bids for the work, a day ahead of the request for proposals (RFP) deadline.
LONDON — The Netherlands plans to pursue an off-the-shelf, medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aircraft, with the goal of achieving an initial operational capability in 2015.
NEW DELHI — An Indian air force Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft crashed Dec. 13 soon after taking off near the western city of Pune. The pilots ejected safely. The crash comes as authorities are discussing the predominant reasons for the spate of crashes involving Indian air force (IAF) fighter jets. During the last three years, the IAF has lost 30 fighter aircraft and 10 helicopters in crashes.
Aviation Week Defense Technology Affordability Requirements Feb. 14-16, 2012 Arlington, VA Shedding light on DoD’s future spending priorities and important technology areas! Hear from senior service leaders on what the customer wants and how requirements are shifting. For more information and to register visit www.aviationweek.com/events/dtar.
NEW DELHI — Indian scientists are in the process of developing robots to replace human soldiers in the near future as part of the country’s unmanned warfare system. A new research facility has been set up by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and BEML Ltd., the state-run heavy engineering and defense equipment major, in Avadi, a suburb of Chennai in south India, to make robot soldiers and cargo-transporting robots for the country’s army.
LONDON — In a move that could lead to the bifurcation of Europe’s unmanned aircraft industry, EADS/Cassidian and Alenia Aeronautica have signed an agreement to explore potential cooperation in the realm of medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAVs and unmanned combat air vehicles.
A new, reduced-signature, intelligence-collecting aircraft that can carry bombs weighing up to a ton is being introduced as a test aircraft for new sensors and weapons, and is expected to evolve into “in-theater” operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The project was already under way before the loss of a reduced-signature UAV near Kashmar in northeastern Iran on Dec. 4, U.S. officials say.
U.S. aerospace and defense sales continued to grow in 2011 and will see only a modest decline next year, according to a forecast unveiled Wednesday by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
GROSSI GONE: The chief executive of Italian defense group Finmeccanica’s Selex Sistemi Integrati unit, Marina Grossi, has resigned, according to a Finmeccanica statement Dec. 14. Reuters says the board of Selex — the systems and radar unit — will meet Dec. 15 to discuss new management appointments. Grossi is married to Finmeccanica’s former chairman Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, who recently stepped down due to a long-running corruption probe.
Senate Republicans are building a bill to spare the Pentagon huge budget cuts, pledging to reach an agreement with Democrats on deficit reduction that they failed to achieve in November.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Airbus Military’s decision to equip its C295 airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft with an Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) radar system is raising questions in some parts of the Muslim world.
LightSquared is calling for an investigation of the source of possibly leaked data from the recently completed GPS interference tests conducted by the U.S. government that evidently contradict more favorable test results recently promoted by the company.
LONDON — In formally notifying the U.S. Congress over Iraq’s plans to buy 18 F-16IQs, the Pentagon also has detailed what choices Baghdad still faces under a deal that could reach $3.2 billion.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) signed a fixed-price contract with EADS-Astrium Dec. 13 to manage the continued operation and use of the European components of the International Space Station (ISS). The contract, valued at €233 million ($310 million) through next year, represents the first phase of a long-term service agreement between ESA and Astrium for the planned service life of the ISS through 2020.
NEW DELHI — India ranked as the third-largest purchaser of U.S. arms exports in fiscal 2011, with contracts worth $4.5 billion, according to a Pentagon report. U.S. arms sales to India included naval reconnaissance aircraft, transport aircraft, sea-skimming missiles and other weapon systems. U.S. foreign military sales (FMS) overseen by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) passed the $30 billion mark for the fourth consecutive year, with the total reaching $34.8 billion.
SEATTLE — Aiming to return to a time when the U.S. can fly its own astronauts into space — or anyone else with money enough to buy a ride — Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his SpaceShipOne partner, experimental aircraft designer Burt Rutan, plan to use the equivalent of two 747-400s to airlift a Falcon 9 derivative launcher for drop-launches into orbit by the end of the decade.
BEIJING — The launch of a Japanese radar satellite is to be followed by a second in 2012-13, as the country builds up its space-based reconnaissance capability.
EARLY START: NASA’s Mars Science Lab rover, dubbed “Curiosity,” has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars, following its Nov. 26 launch. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to the Red Planet, NASA says. The car-sized rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector that monitors high-energy atomic and subatomic particles from space. These particles constitute radiation that could be harmful to any microbes or astronauts in space or on Mars.
An announcement by a group of largely Republican lawmakers about coming legislation to roll back the sting of steep budget cuts by reducing the deficit could come as early as this week. In August, Congress put in place a requirement for lawmakers to find $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. A Super Committee put in place to find those budget cuts failed, setting in motion a potential cut of the same amount for all government agencies, including an additional $600 billion in defense cuts over the next decade.
HOUSTON — NASA’s Johnson Space Center has joined with the Houston Technology Center (HTC) under the terms of a Space Act Agreement signed Dec. 13 to leverage the talents of laid-off shuttle and Constellation program workers to establish new high-technology companies with the potential to create thousands of new jobs.
PARIS — Russian space agency Roscosmos launched Israel’s Amos 5 communications satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 11, pairing the 2,000-kg (4,410-lb.) spacecraft with the agency’s Luch-5A data relay satellite atop a Russian Proton M/Breeze M rocket.
