The U.S. and its allies could not have conducted recent operations in Libya and other areas without the Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey, says Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos. Amos cites the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft Personnel mission that an Osprey performed during Libyan operations to rescue an Air Force pilot after his F-15 was downed. The Osprey launched from the USS Kearsarge amphibious assault ship and returned with the pilot within about 90 min. — a feat, Amos says, no other aircraft could have completed.
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New Delhi – The U.S. is set to win some big-ticket defense equipment deals from India after the downselect of two of its fighters from the $11 billion competition to supply 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to the Indian air force. Apparently in a bid to compensate for the MMRCA downselect, India, which is a strategic partner of the U.S., plans to award deals worth more than $10 billion for combat, military transport and reconnaissance aircraft.
Pentagon acquisition officials and contractors for programs outside the continental U.S. — especially those in Southwest Asia — will face more intense oversight by the Defense Department Inspector General (IG). “We learned a hard lesson a few years ago about the difficulty of conducting oversight over two wars without an adequate permanent presence in-theater,” says Pentagon Inspector General Gordon Heddell, in the Journal of Public Inquiry released this month by the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Nov. 1 — Women in Aerospace 26th Annual Ceremony and Banquet, Ritz Carlton Pentagon City, Arlington, Va. For more information go to www.womeninaerospace.org Nov. 1 - 3 — National Defense Industrial Association's Aircraft Survivability Symposium 2011, Admiral Kidd Club, San Diego. For more information call (703) 247-2558 or go to www.ndia.org
COUGAR UPGRADE: Eurocopter will upgrade seven French military AS532 Cougar helicopters under a newly awarded contract as part of a wider effort to modernize 26 rotorcraft of the type. The latest contract covers work on one French air force and six French army Cougars. As part of the activity, the self-protection systems and avionics will be upgraded The upgrade is expected to enhance the ability of the helicopters’ operators to cooperate with land forces.
The wheels are about to fall off the vehicle-buying bonanza that has been driving Pentagon procurement in recent years. “We have 40,000 vehicles in the Marine Corps,” said Gen. James Amos, U.S. Marine Corps Commandant, during an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations on Oct. 26. “We need about 30,000. We’re not going to recapitalize all of those vehicles.” The Marines, he says, are going to buy “what’s good enough” to get through the next several years.
Managers of NASA’s planetary science program are seeking a way to protect at least some analysis from well-known ongoing deep-space missions as the agency faces swelling costs and a shrinking science budget. Jim Green, the planetary science director at NASA headquarters, told a subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council Oct. 27 that over the next five years his chunk of the agency budget is scheduled to shrink by about 23% by fiscal 2016 from its $1.54 billion fiscal 2011 budget
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli warned lawmakers Oct. 27 against discounting the ground forces and hollowing out the Army as the nation looks for ways to cut its deficit. And he mounted an impassioned defense of two of the service’s top ground vehicle programs – the Ground Combat Vehicle and the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle – which analysts have identified as prime targets for budget cuts.
Madrid-based Indra says its Manta directed infrared countermeasures system has completed trials during a NATO exercise that validated the Dircm’s maturity and production readiness. The laser-based system uses a set of predefined jamming techniques to thwart various types of infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles without first identifying their type. Indra has been working with Russia’s Rosoboronoexport on the system, as well as the Spanish national aeronautics research center, INTA.
NEW DELHI – The Indian army will soon receive 204 armored repair and recovery vehicles for revamping of its damaged T-72s — the Russian-made battle tanks used by the country’s armed forces, a defense ministry official says. The armored recovery vehicles (ARVs) will be built by the Bengaluru-based defense supplier Bharat Earth Movers under full technology transfer from Poland’s Bumar. A proposal was recently cleared by the federal Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the official says.
Additional government testing of GPS receivers for interference from LightSquared’s broadband-wireless network under a revised deployment plan is getting under way at Holloman AFB, N.M. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered the additional work after tests confirmed there would be severe GPS interference from the original deployment plan, but indicated the problem would be reduced significantly if LightSquared used only the lower of its two frequency bands, the one farthest from the GPS satellite signal.
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November 2 - 3, 2011 Renaissance Polat Istanbul Hotel Istanbul, Turkey Engine maintenance at 35%, is the largest segment of total MRO spend. It is the biggest cost driver for operators and engine MRO requirements are likely to increase over the next decade. This forum will identify and help you develop a strategy for selecting your service provider and planning engine maintenance schedules that lead to effective planning and cost reduction.
SAT REUSE: Retired satellites in geosynchronous orbit could be harvested and reused using a new class of “satlets” to be developed under a new U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program. The Phoenix program would enable reuse of apertures and antennas on decommissioned GEO satellites in graveyard or disposal orbits. The satlets, or nanosatellites, would ride along on a commercial satellite launch and be released to link up with an on-orbit “tender” or servicing satellite.
Singapore – Indonesia appears to be moving toward signing a contract to have some older Lockheed Martin F-16s upgraded to the Block 52 standard, a move that comes after the country’s populist president weighed into the debate about defense procurement processes.
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The first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) jam-proof communications satellite finally reached its proper orbit Oct. 24 after officials nearly lost the spacecraft due to an onboard engine failure last year.
An interesting peek at top cyber-defenses comes from a list of “best anti-malware” assembled by Government Security News, a homeland security trade publication. Criteria for the list were electronic capabilities aimed at “sniffing out bad things that already lurk” in cyberspace. The toolbox provides an interesting survey of digital dirty tricks. The following highlights four new capabilities:
NASA hopes to use commercial vehicles to match the cost of flying astronauts to the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz vehicles or to do slightly better. But even if U.S.-built commercial vehicles are ready to fly crews in 2016 as planned, the agency probably will need a longer exemption on the law that otherwise would keep it from doing business with Moscow.
LONDON – Days after unveiling sweeping cuts to Germany’s defense modernization plans, the country’s defense minister, Thomas de Maiziere, is stressing the importance of sustaining a healthy industrial base for the country. Having its own industrial competencies is critical for Germany to play a role in the integration of Europe’s defense industrial base, de Maiziere said during an address in Berlin. Only countries with a meaningful industrial base will have the weight to influence decisions among partners, he adds.
A member of the secretive congressional committee in charge of finding ways to rein in the U.S. government from its staggering deficit is already asking about ways to get around the harshest penalty associated with failure: $600 billion in automatic cuts to the Pentagon budget.
Ten years to the date of the F-35 development contract being signed, the Pentagon is playing hardball with Lockheed Martin, its prime contractor for the roughly $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter, the largest program on the Defense Department’s books.
