LONDON — Six weeks after a TP400D turboprop gearbox failure, the A400M military airlifter program is still grappling with the setback, which is starting to erode the schedule margin that had been gradually built up. Europrop International (EPI) — the joint venture of Rolls-Royce, Snecma, MTU and ITP — has not yet identified the root case of an inflight pinion failure. The component is made by Avio.
Missiles and missile defense are proving to be pretty lucrative for Lockheed Martin. “We continue to see strong interest in Patriot around the globe,” CEO Robert Stevens told Wall Street investment analysts during the company’s July 26 second-quarter earnings call.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has chosen Vanderbilt University to set up the vehicleforge.mil website to enable software-style “open source” development of military systems, beginning with a ground combat vehicle.
NEW DELHI — India is likely to announce the winner of its $11 billion competition to furnish its air force with 126 combat jets in the next five to six weeks. “The next step is to call vendors and open up the commercial bids. Of the two manufacturers left in the fray for the Medium-Multirole Combat Aircraft [MMRCA], we will [determine the lowest bidder] in the next five to six weeks,” Indian Air Force (IAF) chief P.V. Naik said July 26. As per India’s defense procurement procedures, the lowest bidder wins the deal.
Six would-be spaceborne astronomers have completed three days of training at the Nastar Center near Philadelphia, setting the stage for research-funded suborbital human spaceflight once vehicle-development is completed. Eight astronaut-trainees from the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) and three South Carolina colleges took part in the training, which was intended to familiarize operators of the proposed Atsa suborbital telescope with spaceflight conditions.
The U.S. should stay on its current course to build its next aircraft carrier and avoid any delivery delays, says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the vice chief of naval operations (CNO), who is slated to take the service’s top job this fall.
ITALIAN CUTS: Despite significant budget cuts to Italy’s defense sector, Frost & Sullivan Consultant Aman Pannu says the Italian air platforms market still holds some business potential. “Opportunities within the Italian defense market are driven by new platforms and C4ISTAR procurements, although only in the medium- to long-term,” Pannu says in a July 26 statement. Italian defense officials are planning to cut some major programs such as the Eurofighter, which has been reduced by 25 units, to save up to €5 billion ($7.3 billion), Frost & Sullivan said.
ATK will supply its commercial Orion solid-rocket motor to Orbital Sciences Corp. for use in the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) target rocket program. The $48 million major subcontractor award follows Orbital’s IRBM win in March, and covers delivery of eight Orion 50S XLT and 50 XLT vehicles by the first quarter of 2013, with options for 14 additional vehicles over the following two years. The Orion will provide first and second stage propulsion for the target rocket.
MORE ZUMWALTS: The U.S. Navy and General Dynamics-Bath Iron Works have reached an agreement for the second and third DDG-1000s that will be assembled in Bath, according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). The DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer includes a host of new shipbuilding technologies, including a composite deckhouse, upgraded radar suite and hybrid propulsion drive. Slated for a seven-ship fleet, the Zumwalt was recently truncated to a three-ship buy, and there had been some question lately about whether the Navy would contract for the third ship.
A second attempt to boost a hypersonic glider across the Pacific Ocean at Mach 20 will be made as early as Aug. 10 after a review board approved changes made following the loss of the first Lockheed Martin HTV-2 test vehicle on April 22, 2010. The first HTV-2 was lost 9 min. into the flight from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., when its autonomous flight-termination system activated after vehicle roll exceeded predetermined limits (Aerospace DAILY, April 28, 2010).
While $400 billion in cuts would stretch U.S. military readiness to the breaking point, greater reductions could cause the different services to re-evaluate the way they do business, top service officers tell Congress. Top brass for the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps said July 26 that deeper cuts would bring about “fundamental” and “structural” changes to how they view their missions — or even what those missions might be — during a House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee hearing on readiness.
The chief of U.S. Strategic Command says he does not yet know if the goal of intercepting ballistic missiles early in flight — prior to apogee — is viable with existing technology and funding. But U.S. Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler says he remains “comfortable” with the Missile Defense Agency’s plans for ballistic missile defense (BMD), which rely heavily on the early intercept concept.
Developers of future human-rated launch vehicles will have a commercial flight computer to plug in if a new development internally funded by Ball Aerospace & Technologies works out. The Boulder, Colo.-based spacecraft and space-components house based the design of its prototype launch vehicle flight computers on hardware already in use by NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center simulation laboratories for developing software and test systems for human-rated launch vehicles, according to Ball.
The Pentagon’s effort to nail down $400 billion in cuts has been so tough that doubling that goal “would be extraordinarily difficult and very high risk,” the nominee to be the next top U.S. military leader told lawmakers.
ARMY SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., was awarded a $22,053,476 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the necessary support to improve the state-of-the-art airborne ultra high frequency radar for detecting targets of interest. The work will be performed in Menlo Park, Calif.; Arlington, Va.; Helena, Mont.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Princeton, N.J.; Iraq; Bridgewater, Va.; and Dothan, Ala., with an estimated completion date of April 15, 2012. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Miss., is the contracting activity (W912HZ-11-C-0029).
The Pentagon Inspector General (IG) has called into question U.S. Marine Corps accounting for nearly 57% of about $5.8 billion in war costs. “Marine Corps officials did not always support or accurately report fiscal 2008 OCO (Overseas Contingency Operations) costs,” the IG says in its July 22 report. The IG acknowledges that Marine Corps officials “properly supported” 179 transactions, worth about $2.27 billion, and partially supported 14 other transactions worth about $204 million.
Sept. 28, 201I IFEMA, Madrid, Spain This event provides a forum for knowledge delivery and information exchange on defense sustainment in Europe. Attendees will benefit from fist-hand information from Military and Defense agencies on how they’re overcoming current challenges and changes facing maintenance and sustainment, including budgets, cutbacks, and shifting mission requirements. Co-located with MRO Europe! Learn more and register today at www.aviationweek.com/events
F-16 SIM: Despite the U.S. decision to withhold $800 million in military aid to Pakistan, L-3 Link Training & Simulation has received a $20.6 million “instant buy” contract for two F-16 flight simulators for the country. The contract covers two aircrew training devices for the F-16C Block 52, one of which is reconfigurable to the upgraded F-16A Block 15. Both fixed-base simulators will have 360-deg. horizontal by 250-deg. vertical visual systems.
TRANSLATING GREEN: The U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command this month selected six contractors to compete under a nine-year, $9.7 billion contract to provide high-quality linguist and analyst services in support of the Defense Department Language Interpretation and Translation Enterprise. Prime awardees include Northrop Grumman Technical Services, Linc Government Services, L-3 Services, Global Linguist Solutions and Mission Essential Personnel, according to FedBizOpps.gov. Other bidders were not identified.
CLOSE-OUT: The Obama administration will move to close 373 federal data centers by the end of 2012, including 113 defense, 24 homeland security, 15 NASA and six State Department centers, according to a White House announcement July 20. The centers are scattered across about 30 states and include a 195,000-sq.-ft. — roughly the size of 3.5 football fields — Homeland Security Department facility in Alabama.
AIR FORCE L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Greenville, Texas, is being awarded a $16,897,859 firm-fixed-price contract to incorporate the purchase of deployment labor required to support the deployment of C-27J aircraft to Afghanistan by issuing a delivery order against the subject contract. ASC/WLNJ, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-07-D-0099).
