LONDON — Lower-than-expected deliveries of executive aircraft are forcing Embraer to moderate its earnings guidance, although the situation is cushioned by its strong defense and regional jet activities.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — NASA managers are relying on hardware developed for other human-spaceflight programs to flatten the development budget on the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) to squeeze it within a spending cap of $1.2 billion a year. Todd May, the SLS program manager here at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said Nov. 4 that the big new rocket is being designed with affordability and sustainability considerations at least as important as performance.
PARIS — Europe’s first two Galileo navigation satellites have reached their final operating orbits in preparation for activating and testing their navigation payloads, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced Nov. 4.
NEW DELHI — India today opened bidding to determine the cheapest option between the two European contenders vying for the $11 billion contract to supply 126 fighter jets to the Indian air force. “Financial bids of both Dassault and Eurofighter were opened earlier in the day and we expect to decide on the vendor for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft in three [or] four weeks,” a defense ministry spokesman says.
“We are looking at the modern battlefield and drawing some [new] conclusions,” says Col. Jim Ekvall, chief of the Army’s new electronic warfare division. “The focus is the brigade because it is the smallest warfighting unit that has to be on its own and its commander needs the tools to sustain [combat] inside the electromagnetic spectrum. We want [a] scalable, flexible, open and modular [system] so we can keep upgrading it.”
Top Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee are pressing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for specific information about the effect of nearly $1 trillion in across-the-board cuts to military spending even as they are working to find a way around that potential penalty. “In order for the Congress do to its job, we cannot wait until December or later to receive specific and concrete information,” say Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) in a Nov. 3 letter to Panetta.
Enhanced ballistic missile defense (BMD) missions will stretch the future U.S. Navy destroyer force beyond its fleet limits as well as put even more pressure on the service’s already stressed funding accounts, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis and a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. CRS notes the projected necessary U.S. destroyer fleet size has grown by 6% to 94, partly to accommodate growing BMD missions.
AUSSIE TRADE: Australian officials say their country’s defense trade treaty with the U.S. is one step closer to being implemented following the introduction of related legislation in Parliament. The treaty, signed in 2007 by leaders of both countries, removes the requirement for individual licenses to be obtained for preordained exports, and allows for the license-free movement of eligible defense articles within the pre-approved communities.
Negotiations for the fifth lot of low-rate initial production (LRIP) F-35 Joint Strike fighters are in flux, primarily as a result of not having decided who will pay for changes to the aircraft — the government or Lockheed Martin — due to concurrency in the program.
CHINA CAPSULE DOCKS: China’s unmanned Shenzhou 8 capsule performed the first of two planned orbital docking maneuvers with the Tiangong 1 target module on Nov. 3, marking an essential milestone as the country mounts plans to orbit its own space station. Official state media, while keen to play up the propaganda value of the docking, frankly noted that the U.S. had coupled two spacecraft in orbit 45 years ago with the Gemini 8 mission.
LONDON — The Swedish military is looking to buy two small unmanned aircraft to replace the SkyLark system that has been in service since 2007. The goal is to acquire an off-the-shelf system. The new requirement is for two systems, ideally with a common ground station, Swedish defense armaments agency FMV says. The smaller system, or air vehicle type A, should have at least 45 min. of endurance, with a minimum mission range of 5 km (3 mi.). For the type B, those figures are at least 120 min. of endurance and a 10-km range.
Boeing has submitted its proposal for a second multiyear procurement of Chinook heavy-lift helicopters for the U.S. Army, covering 155 CH-47Fs to be produced over five years, with deliveries beginning in 2015. If approved, the second multiyear procurement (MYP 2) — for 34 new-build and 121 “renew” F models remanufactured from CH-47Ds — would complete the Army’s planned procurement of CH-47Fs and special operations MH-47Gs.
GLONS, Belgium — NATO is starting another round of testing and verification of its massive Air Command and Control System (ACCS), with the hope of having the so-called level of capability one (Loc 1) reach initial operational capability by mid-2013.
The ability of the U.S. Air Force to maintain 60 combat air patrols (CAPs) of remotely piloted aircraft is going to shrink, but the much sought-after capability should be re-established over the next year and later grow to a total of 65, according to Lt. Gen. Herbert Carlisle, deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements. He made the prediction during Nov. 2 testimony to the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical and air-land forces.
NEW DELHI — India will open commercial bids for its two finalists in the $11 billion Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program on Nov. 4. “We expect to finalize the vendor for the 126 multirole combat jets in the next few weeks,” a defense ministry official says. In April, India downselected the Eurofighter Consortium’s Typhoon and Dassault’s Rafale as the final contenders for the MMRCA deal. The two companies have extended their offers until December and the government has to decide the final winner by then or the bids will expire.
GENOA, Italy — Engineers from U.S. behemoth Boeing are offering further glimpses into the so-called “international road map” variant of its F-18 Super Hornet, starting with its two shoulder-mounted conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) and numerous Enclosed Weapons Pods (EWPs). The details are emerging as Boeing and rival Lockheed Martin, with its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), move from being cut out of the Indian Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft and look to non-JSF partners like Japan for new business.
GLONS, Belgium — As part of NATO’s gradual effort to expand its missile defense capability, the alliance on Nov. 4 is expected to award a contract to upgrade a key systems development tool. The award of €20-30 million ($28-40 million) will kick off a spiral of development funding, says a NATO official. The money will go to what is called Interim Capability 2 final (or Spiral 1) and should expand the capacity of NATO’s interim Air Command and Control System (ACCS). It is part of NATO’s Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD) road map.
HOUSTON — Excalibur Almaz, Inc., a Houston-headquartered space tourism company distinguished by its plans to use refurbished Soviet-era military space station hardware for adventure travel and commercial research, has become the seventh participant in the second round of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) initiative.
NEW DELHI — India’s defense ministry has approved a massive military modernization program that includes a comprehensive overhaul and upgrade of the army’s firepower. The military revamp, pegged at about $12 billion, is now awaiting the finance ministry’s approval, an army official tells Aviation Week. “The proposal is expected to be cleared by the finance ministry very soon and it will then be put before the Cabinet Committee on Security for approval and financial sanction,” he says.
The Obama administration is striking back against potential congressional reductions to programs that would extend the life of the U.S.’s nuclear bombs. The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee has reduced funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear modernization request by $1.16 billion, and the Senate has removed $732 million from the request, said Thomas D’Agostino, NNSA administrator.
Click here to view the pdf Defense Appropriations: Where Lawmakers Agree ($ in thousands) Defense Appropriations: Where Lawmakers Agree ($ in thousands) RequestRank Description Request House
A group of 100 Republican and Democratic lawmakers are urging the super committee to push for $4 trillion in deficit reduction, beyond its current goal of $1.2 trillion. Republicans in the group led by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and Rep. Mike Simspon (R-Idaho) say they’re willing to consider some tax increases, and some Democrats say additional reductions to the defense budget would help rack up the significantly higher target.
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To save money in the near term, the U.S. Air Force plans to phase in testing of its next-generation bomber’s nuclear capabilities. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told lawmakers Nov. 2 that the new bomber will be designed to perform both nuclear and conventional long-range strike missions. But the bomber won’t be certified for the nuclear missions at the start.
