LONDON — The European Defense Agency (EDA) is preparing to take a closer look at radar technologies that could allow military personnel to look inside buildings.
The U.S. Army may have slipped a decision on the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) into the next fiscal year, but competition between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon for the multibillion-dollar program has not cooled, with both companies touting success in rocket motor tests. The motor is a key element of the JAGM, which must replace Hellfire and Maverick missiles carried by both low-speed helicopters and high-flying fighters and unmanned aircraft.
The U.S. Navy wants to refit existing DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers with hybrid-drive propulsion systems—as well as incorporate the technology in future Flight III versions of the ship—to help save on fuel costs, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says. “We’re very interested in hybrid drive,” Mabus told reporters Aug. 22 during a teleconference on Navy energy initiatives. “We’re looking at retrofitting the ships we have and [putting it on] the new ships we’re constructing.”
The U.S. Navy has some serious financial ground to regain to make its surface vessels shipshape again after diluting ship-repair expenses to pay for war needs, according to an exclusive Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of Pentagon contracting data. As conflicts were heating up in the latter years of the previous decade, the Navy shifted its funding focus from ship repair to buying items like helicopter components or combat vehicles. (See chart p. 6.)
FIGHTER SHARE: The Russian government expects to retain its spot as the world’s second-largest fighter aircraft exporter, according to a new study. The defense ministry analysis says Russia should capture around 23% of fighter exports through 2014, about half the U.S. market share and well ahead of the U.K. Around 5% of deliveries during that period remain to be allocated. Deliveries of Sukhois will represent just less than 14% of the global market total. The fighter market share roughly represents Russia’s overall ranking in arms exports.
A clip from a Chinese TV documentary purporting to show a Chinese military-launched cyberattack on a U.S.-based religious sect is attracting the attention of U.S. intelligence and defense industry officials and has made it onto YouTube. A veteran National Security Agency cyber-warrior who viewed the clip classifies it as “very cool,” and says it could become an embarrassment to the Chinese government. In addition to YouTube, the footage, as of Aug. 23, could still be viewed on China’s CCTV website.
CANBERRA — The Australian government is in talks with U.S. government officials and Boeing about ordering a further batch of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets because of delays in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The deal could be for up to 24 additional twin-engine fighters. A decision will be made next year, Defense Minister Stephen Smith says. For Lockheed Martin, the move raises the risk that it will lose 48 F-35 orders it was hoping to bank in Australia.
HOUSTON — Russia’s Progress 43 cargo capsule departed the International Space Station early Aug. 23, freeing the orbiting science laboratory’s aft docking port for the arrival of a successor supply freighter later this week. A Soyuz booster with the unpiloted Progress 44 spacecraft, loaded with 5,900 lb. of propellant, water, containers of pressurized oxygen, spare parts and research gear, is scheduled to lift off from the Baiknonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Aug. 24 at 9 a.m. EDT (7 p.m. local time).
Aviation Week Intelligence Network Exclusive Leading U.S. Navy Expenses 1999-2009, Ranked By Average Amount Spent Or Allocated Aviation Week Intelligence Network Exclusive Leading U.S.
SINGAPORE — Some Taiwanese defense officials are continuing to argue that no final decision has been made on whether the U.S. will sell the island nation Lockheed Martin F-16C/Ds. But others in the government are starting to come out publicly and say what people in the U.S. defense industry have suspected all along: President Barack Obama will not sell the country new F-16s.
The aerospace industry will be asked shortly for ideas on how $510 million in government money should be spent over the next three years to build an aviation and marine biofuels supply chain in the U.S. It also will be asked how much money it is willing to put into what the government intends to be a public/private partnership.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Raytheon officials are seeking government sponsorship for continued work on an SM-3 datalink designed to mate the ballistic missile interceptor with foreign ships. The project is eyed by the company to dovetail with growing interest in NATO to build up its missile defenses after last year’s declaration that such a defense is a core alliance mission. Work prototyping the dual-band datalink has been under way for at least two years, says Ed Miyashiro, vice president at Raytheon Missile Systems.
HOUSTON — Electricity surged through Robonaut 2 for the first time on Aug. 22, signaling the prospects for a “first motion” in several weeks. R2, a broad-shouldered experimental two-armed robot, was launched to the International Space Station aboard NASA’s STS-133 mission in February. Robonaut 2 was stowed in the U.S. Destiny lab, while NASA shuttle crews focused on completing the nearly 13-year-long assembly and outfitting of the orbital outpost.
While the U.S. Navy has spent more money by far on fixed-wing aircraft than any other single expense over the past decade, the service invested evenly in both its aircraft and ship accounts during that time, according to an exclusive analysis of contracting data by the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN).
The first in-space tests under NASA’s new advanced technology push will involve laser communications for high-data-rate links to deep-space probes, a space-qualified atomic clock to make the laser links even more efficient, and the largest solar sail yet flown. The U.S. space agency plans to spend $175 million over the next four years, if Congress appropriates that amount, on the first three Technology Demonstration Missions (TDMs) funded under the Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT).
MOSCOW — Russian Helicopters has begun operating the new Mil Mi-38 medium helicopter with Klimov TV7-117 turboshafts. The twin-engine rotorcraft has been powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127s. The Russian engines were installed on the Mi-38 immediately before the Moscow air show, where the rotorcraft debuted. The model has been designated the Mi-382. The Mi-38 transport helicopter has been in development since the 1980s.
ARMY Caterpillar Inc., Government and Defense Products, Mossville, Ill., was awarded a $37,667,837 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of 172 motorized graders with Type A-kit, and 10 days of support. The work will be performed in Mossville, with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2012. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with two bids received. The U.S. Army TACOM, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-08-D-0037).
Managers at NASA replanning the troubled James Webb Space Telescope have arrived at a new total price tag of $8.7 billion to develop, launch and operate the observatory at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point for the duration of its five-year mission. The agency says that by the end of fiscal 2011 it will have spent $3.5 billion so far on the project, which means another $5.2 billion must be found by the end of the five-year mission following its estimated launch in 2018.
NEW DELHI — India has added an indigenous stealth warship to its navy for use on the country’s east side, amid rising concerns about the Chinese naval presence in the region. INS Satpura, a state-of-the-art, multirole combat frigate, sports advanced features designed for dodging enemy radars. The frigate is the second of the three-ship Project-17 Shivalik Class. The warship, along with its first vessel in the series, INS Shivalik, will be deployed in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean region.
ARMY Honeywell International Inc., Clearwater, Fla., was awarded a $141,200,000 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of inertial navigation units for several end items, including the Bradley, Knight, and Howitzer. The work will be performed in Clearwater, with an estimated completion date of July 30, 2016. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-11-D-0160). AIR FORCE
BUILDING LCS: The Lockheed Martin-led Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) contractor team has started building LCS-5, named the Milwaukee, which is scheduled to be delivered to the U.S. Navy in 2014. The Navy approved the construction start after the Lockheed-led team passed a production readiness review for design completion, staffing and material readiness. The contractor team designed and constructed the first LCS, the USS Freedom, which was commissioned in 2008, and LCS-3, the future Fort Worth, which was christened and launched in December 2010.
