Obama administration officials went to Capitol Hill Dec. 1 to ask for a hold on the Kirk-Mendez amendment to the defense authorization bill that would punish U.S. allies if they continue oil trading with Iran.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are using a congressionally inflicted penalty to drive a wedge between the White House and Pentagon. In August, Congress OK’d the Budget Control Act, which stipulated that lawmakers had to agree how to direct $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. Without such an agreement, a penalty known as sequester involving $1.2 trillion in cuts to discretionary spending – including $600 billion for security spending – would fall on government agencies starting on Jan. 2, 2013.
NEW YORK – Senior industry and government officials overseeing the $380 billion F-35 program say that the fourth production lot is likely to overrun its per-unit cost target by about 7%. Vice Adm. David Venlet, the government’s F-35 program executive officer, says that prime contractor Lockheed Martin could improve on that, bringing the cost at completion closer to the target. Roughly 30% of the build is complete for the aircraft in low-rate-initial production (LRIP) lot 4, he says.
PARIS – With $137 million in new financing, backbone Internet service provider O3b Networks has tapped European satellite maker Thales Alenia Space to build four additional satellites for a new mid-Earth-orbit constellation, the companies announced in November. The contract follows a $1.2 billion deal under which Thales Alenia Space is already building eight of the Ka-band communications satellites for the U.K.-based startup.
The U.S. Army recently sent 126 Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless rifles to Afghanistan in response to an urgent operational needs statement that called for a solution to the insurgent tactic of using rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns to stay out of range of the most commonly used American infantry weapons.
NEW YORK – The U.S. Defense Department’s comptroller says there is not enough time to rework its fiscal 2013 budget request to reflect massive cuts that would be automatically triggered if Congress cannot pass a plan to reduce the federal budget deficit.
NEW DELHI – Almost a year after the U.S. lifted a 12-year-old dual-use technology export control ban on nine Indian space and defense-related companies, the chief of India’s premier defense research agency says the decision has not helped. “The removal of some DRDO labs from the Entity List by the U.S. has not changed anything for us,” Defense Research and Development Organization chief V.K. Saraswat said recently. “Our experience has been these regulations make it more difficult,” he added.
A Texas senator’s effort to force the Obama administration to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan is fading. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sought to add an amendment to the defense authorization bill for fiscal 2012 mandating the sale of at least 66 F-16s to the island nation. But a vote on the bill is expected Dec. 1, with time for the amendment’s consideration dwindling. Even his office acknowledged that at this point, the chances are unlikely.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is analyzing what she calls a “slush fund” full of earmarks created by the House Armed Services Committee. The fund McCaskill is referring to is a $1 billion “Force and Mission Enhancement Fund” that the committee included in its markup of the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill. Committee members were allowed to add legislative proposals for certain projects.
A guided missile prototype funded and developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) successfully hit two high-speed boats during recent testing in Point Mugu, Calif. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division engineers used a shore-based launcher to fire two Low-Cost Imaging Terminal Seeker (LCITS) rockets in the Nov. 3 test, one inert and the other with an explosive warhead, ONR reports.
NEW YORK – The Navy is hoping to shift 10-15% of its sole-source work into a competitive environment in the coming years as part of a push to more smartly buy and manage weapon system development and production in a tightly constrained budget environment. The service is pursuing several ways to inject more competition into its contracting.
HOUSTON – The world’s space-faring nations must forge a cooperative strategy for the costly and technically challenging elimination of orbital debris that poses a growing threat to strategically important robotic as well as manned spacecraft, according to Nicholas L. Johnson, NASA’s chief scientist for orbital debris and the top U.S. representative to the United Nation on the issue.
LONDON – Switzerland has opted to buy 22 Saab Gripen JAS-39E/Fs in its long-running F-5 Tiger replacement program, says Defense Minister Ueli Maurer. Gripen beat out the Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon—Boeing withdrew the F/A-18E/F early from the program.
SPARE ENGINES: The U.S. Navy has awarded General Electric Aircraft Engines of Lynn, Mass., a $29.7 million contract modification to provide eight F414-GE-400 spare engines for the F/A-18E/F aircraft, the Pentagon announced Nov. 30. The work will be performed in Lynn; Madisonville, Ky.; Hooksett, N.H.; Rutland, Vt.; Dayton, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; Muskegon, Mich.; Terre Haute, Ind.; Bromont, Canada; Asheville, N.C.; and Evandale, Ohio. It is expected to be completed in February 2013. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
NEW DELHI – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has not invited India to become a partner in its missile defense program, Defense Minister A.K. Antony told parliament Wednesday. Media reports in September, quoting several top NATO officials in Brussels, said the military alliance offered to share missile defense technology with India. The reports said NATO wanted a dialog with India similar to that Washington and New Delhi have as bilateral partners.
FARNBOROUGH – The U.S. Marine Corps is getting ready to flight test a planned upgrade to the KC-130J Harvest Hawk gunship mission equipment that would allow crew to fire the Griffin standoff precision guided munition without depressurizing the airlifter’s cabin.
Russia once again failed to send orbit-raising commands to its stranded Phobos-Grunt spacecraft on Nov. 29 via a European Space Agency (ESA) ground station in Perth, Australia, dimming hopes that the Mars’ moon sample-return mission can be salvaged. Subsequent attempts on Nov. 30 using ESA’s 15-meter dia. antenna at its Maspalomas tracking station in the Canary Islands were also unsuccessful, ESA said.
One of the keys to winning the U.S. Navy’s proposed Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (Canes) program, competitors say, will be keeping the work affordable. Canes will consolidate and enhance five shipboard legacy network programs and provide the common computing environment infrastructure for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence applications now operated and controlled by several existing systems.
LONDON – U.K. legislators and the National Audit Office remain concerned over whether the defense ministry will be able to deliver “value for money” on the revised carrier strike program, but the NAO at least has concluded that the decision to fundamentally restructure the program a year ago was made on a sound basis.
Australia will proceed with a $650 million radar upgrade of all its Anzac-class frigates, which is designed to improve their self-defense capabilities and expected to boost the efforts of manufacturer CEA Technologies and partner Northrop Grumman to export the system. CEA’s active, electronically scanned array radars will be fitted on the ships, which entered service between 1996 and 2006, with modest sensor and weapons adjustments.
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
