2010 Leading Pentagon Contractors 2010 Leading Pentagon Contractors No. Contractor Total Number Of Transactions Total Amount Average Amount Per Transaction 1 Lockheed Martin 6,334 $12,525,344,802
LOS ANGELES — Airbus Military has successfully completed rejected takeoff and emergency evacuation testing for the A400M airlifter as it chases a target of certification by year’s end. High-energy rejected takeoff testing at high speed and maximum takeoff weight was completed Sept. 17 at Toulouse, France, using the first development aircraft. The testing, which Airbus Military says was one of the last items performed before preparation of the aircraft flight manual, was carried out on the airport’s 11,480-ft. (3,500-meter) runway 14R/32L.
The distribution of advanced surveillance and reconnaissance data gathered in Libya to allied combat aircrews is being slowed to a crawl by bureaucratic hurdles, even as the collection and analysis of the information accelerates, U.S. and allied officials say. The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) put up six complex satellites in the last seven months, the best record in 25 years. Moreover, new sensors, faster processing and clever algorithms are providing better tools to plumb the sea of available information.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing’s military 737 derivatives programs are in the midst of a fast-paced development with the imminent first flight of the Indian navy’s 737-800ERX-based P-8I, formal delivery of the first 737-700 based Peace Eye Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft to Korea and the handover of the final Wedgetail AEW&C to Australia. The first P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft for India was rolled out earlier this month and is being readied for its initial flight, currently targeted for around Sept. 30.
One of four companies funded to study the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance And Strike (Uclass) requirement, Boeing will soon select the concept it will offer for the program, which is expected to get under way in 2012.
NASA’s 20-year-old Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) is expected to make an uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry in the afternoon or early evening of Sept. 23, when the spacecraft is not over-flying the North American continent, the space agency reported on the eve of the anticipated plummet.
Michael Lumpkin, head of the Pentagon’s Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict group, warned Congress Sept. 22 that in any future cuts to the defense budget, “we must not repeat the mistake of the degrading of [Special Operations Forces] capabilities,” as happened during the post-Cold War round of cuts.
HOUSTON — The Global Exploration Roadmap, unveiled by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group on Sept. 22, offers two 25-year human pathways to Mars. One follows the “Asteroid next” approach favored by U.S. President Barack Obama, while the other features a “Moon next” gateway more akin to the George W. Bush administration’s scrapped Constellation program.
With its proposed acquisition of Metro Machine Corp., General Dynamics stands to further stretch its ship-maintenance reach on the U.S. East Coast and anchor itself more securely as a prime U.S. Navy contractor. General Dynamics this week said it has reached an agreement to acquire the Virginia-based surface-ship repair company, which supports the U.S. Navy fleet in Norfolk, Va. The value of the cash transaction has not been disclosed. The deal is expected to close in November.
ROCKET PLANS: NASA tentatively plans to modify its Ares I upper-stage contract with Boeing to build the main core stage and upper stage of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), under a “synopsis” of the agency’s procurement plans for the big new rocket through 2021. Boeing also will build the avionics suite for the SLS, according to the synopsis, released Sept. 22 on the NASA Internet Acquisition Service website. An industry day is scheduled at the Alabama Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville on Sept. 29 to gather industry input on the SLS development plan.
U.S. Air Force ground crews will check out the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (Chirp) riding on the SES-2 communications satellite launched Sept. 21 by an Ariane 5 from the European space center near Kourou, French Guiana. Also launched was Arabsat-5C, a multimission spacecraft owned by the Arab Satellite Communications Organization. Arianespace said its fifth Ariane 5 flight of the year added to its string of 46 successful launches with the big European rocket.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A program to develop advanced autonomy for unmanned cargo aircraft is one of several new naval aviation science and technology initiatives being launched by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR). The autonomous aerial cargo/utility program will begin Oct. 1, says Michael Deitchman, deputy chief of naval research, speaking Sept. 21 at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Centennial of Naval Aviation Forum here.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Aurora Flight Sciences is completing automated-takeoff-and-landing flight tests of its Centaur OPV, an optionally piloted vehicle based on the Diamond DA42 twin-engine light aircraft aimed at the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance market. The FAA-certified, four-seat DA42, powered by two turbo-diesel engines, has been equipped with Aurora-developed avionics and systems to enable unmanned missions of up to 24 hr. while retaining the ability to operate manned in civil airspace.
DIGITAL DISCONNECT: Aerospace and defense (A&D) industry leaders know they have to act like their information technology already may have been compromised, but many of them still believe they are more cybersecured than the next company, according to recent reports. A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study released Sept.
HOUSTON — NASA’s nearly 12,600-lb. Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) is descending toward an uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry at midday on Sept. 23, according to the latest estimates from the space agency and the Joint Space Operations Center of U.S. Strategic Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
HOUSTON — The three Russian, U.S. and European crewmembers headed for the International Space Station in late December anticipate few adjustments other than scheduling as they return the orbiting science lab to sustained six-person operations in the aftermath of the Aug. 24 Soyuz failure. Oleg Kononenko, Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers — all veterans of previous station expeditions — are tentatively scheduled to lift off aboard Soyuz 29 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 26, though the launch could be advanced to as early as Dec. 21.
Lessons learned from the combined operations among the U.S., NATO members, partner nations and rebel forces in Libya are still being sorted out but some trends are apparent. “Collectively, Operation Unified Protector is doing more [intelligence] collecting, monitoring and surveillance than strikes,” says U.S. Army Gen. Carter Ham, chief of U.S. Africa Command (Africom).
DEFENSE ENERGY: The Pentagon’s clean energy investments increased 300% between 2006 and 2009, from $400 million to $1.2 billion, and are projected to go above $10 billion annually by 2030, according to a Sept. 21 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. U.S. Defense Department investments will focus on vehicle efficiency, advanced biofuels and energy efficiency, and renewable energy at military bases. The department has 450 ongoing renewable energy projects producing or procuring 9.6% of its energy from “clean” sources in fiscal 2010.
For winning U.S. Navy contracts, the key strategy is to diversify and conquer. That is one of the revelations of an exclusive Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of defense contracting data going back to 1999. The leading Navy contractor during that time is Lockheed Martin, which tallied about $49.9 billion in about 19,789 Navy contracts and contract modifications between 1999 and 2008, according to the AWIN analysis of Defense Department data aggregated by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Airbus Military is wrapping up aerodynamic test flights to determine the feasibility of modifying its C295 tactical transport into an airborne early warning (AEW) platform, equipped with an active, electronically scanned array radar in a rotating rotodome. Results of flights with a dummy rotodome above the fuselage have been “extremely positive,” says Fernando Gomez, project lead at Airbus Military in Madrid, speaking at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference here.
The use of U.S. military might in the recent Libyan conflict is again pitting Congress against the president over who controls those forces and when, notes the Congressional Research Service (CRS). “Controversy continues over the appropriate role that Congress should play in regulating U.S. military operations against foreign entities,” the CRS says in its report, “Congressional Authority to Limit Military Operations,” released earlier this month.
After conducting an in-depth integrated baseline review (IBR) of Boeing’s plans to develop the KC-46A refueler, U.S. Air Force officials say the program is on schedule and cost.
