Singapore – Australia has awarded BAE Systems Australia a new contract to provide basic flight training to the Australian Defense Force (ADF). BAE Systems Australia already has a contract for this work, but the Australian Defense Department says it has extended the contract for six more years, effective beginning in January 2012. The new contract is an interim solution until the ADF’s new pilot training scheme, Project Air 5428, is implemented sometime in the period 2015-17, it adds.
Washington – Japanese officials were told that the U.S. needed to keep a Marine Corps air station in Okinawa because of China’s growing military presence in the region, as well as the need to respond faster to natural disasters than is possible from Guam, according to newly leaked information. The normally unpublished assessment about China is part of a special package of articles published by Tokyo’s Asahi Shimbun news organization that analyzed documents obtained via WikiLeaks.
Congressional fights are ahead over how the House Armed Services Committee panel that deals with strategic forces has chosen to fund U.S. missile defense and space efforts in fiscal 2012. The subcommittee added $100 million for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system run by Boeing in a move that would protect the program from failures in the testing process, according to subcommittee chairman Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio.)
LIFE EXTENSION: The U.S. is providing “significant” technical support and life-cycle upgrades to systems sold to Japan and South Korea under old foreign military sales (FMS), says Andrew Shapiro, the U.S. State Department’s bureau chief for political-military affairs. In a May 3 speech in Washington, Shapiro cited upgrades to radar systems for F-15s in Japan and a modernization program for F-16s in Korea. “We are also always looking to strengthen these relationships.
Washington – According to budget documents submitted to Congress in February, an experimental vehicle-mounted active protection system is possibly being readied for deployment to Afghanistan.
IT NEXUS: A conflagration of trends may yet upset the Pentagon’s drive toward getting a handle on its information technology (IT), analysts at federal IT consultancy Deltek said May 4. The convergence of tightening budgets, IT acquisition reform, shifting warfighting requirements, and the move toward IT integration and standardization – all happening simultaneously – could both facilitate and hinder the Defense Department’s progress toward its goal of total IT transformation.
Los Angeles – ATK is gradually gearing up production of composite parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from three ship sets per month to eight under a $110 million contract from JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
Houston – Funeral services were conducted May 4 near Milan, Italy, for Maria Nespoli, the mother of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Paolo Nespoli, who is serving onboard the International Space Station. She died May 2, according to a European Space Agency statement. Expedition 27 commander Dimitri Kondratyev of Russia, NASA’s Catherine Coleman and Nespoli are scheduled to descend to Earth onboard the Soyuz TMA-20/25S spacecraft on May 23, ending a 160-day mission.
LONDON – French military test personnel have demonstrated the AASM air-to-ground precision-guided munition’s ability to engage a fast-moving ground vehicle even in difficult engagement scenarios.
LONDON – Airbus Military and the Europrop International (EPI) joint venture developing and building the TP400D turboprop engine for the A400 military airlifter have resolved their dispute over contract terms. The two sides were sparring over liabilities linked to A400M delays and cost overruns. The dispute included competing legal filings, although those were quickly set aside to arrive at an out-of-court settlement.
The Pentagon and the National Nuclear Security Administration have made progress in studying and updating the military’s performance requirements for the B61 nuclear bomb and have even ruled out some design options, congressional investigators say, but the broad scope of their study has complicated the looming refurbishment effort. Key components of the B61 – a pivotal part of the U.S. arsenal, especially for NATO – need to be replaced or they will begin reaching the end of their service life.
houston – Endeavour’s second launch attempt will come no earlier than May 10, shuttle and International Space Station program managers decided May 2, following a detailed look at plans to replace Loads Control Assembly-2, an electronics box blamed for last week’s scrub. A retest of the new hardware will also be conducted. A May 10 launch would be targeted for 11:21 a.m. EDT.
Los Angeles – In a last-ditch bid to keep the F136 combat engine alive following cancellation by the U.S. Defense Department, General Electric and Rolls-Royce are developing a plan to convert the development effort into a self-funded demonstrator for the U.S. Air Force’s long-range bomber as well as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
EXPORTS ON: Based on direct commercial sales data, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs expects little change in the high foreign demand for U.S. military products, an official said May 3. Andrew Shapiro, the undersecretary who heads the bureau, says officials expect to grant about 84,000 export licenses this year, equaling the range of 80,000-85,000 granted annually over the last several years. The total value of authorized direct commercial sales is approximately $145 billion, or about 1% of GDP.
LONDON – Signatories to the Missile Technology Control Regime should rethink the terms of the pact because the capabilities no longer deserve their protected status, says Wes Bush, president and CEO of Northrop Grumman. The MTCR “merits a completely fresh look,” the head of the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft-producing company tells the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Changes to the MTCR could spur the sale of long-endurance unmanned aircraft.
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A set of rigid requirements doomed the VH-71 program from the start, but the presidential helicopter replacement program now appears to be back on track, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report states.
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New Delhi – The Indian air force’s fleet modernization is on track, and it is inevitable that the IAF will have three or four different types of aircraft, IAF Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik says. “In the next 10 to 15 years, India will have Sukhoi SU-30s, the medium multirole combat aircraft, the fifth-generation fighter aircraft jointly being developed with Russia, and the indigenous light combat aircraft (Tejas) in the IAF inventory,” Naik says.
