NEW DELHI — The Indian government is in a dilemma over whether to suspend the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in some areas in Kashmir. Under the act, all security forces are given unrestricted power to carry out their operations once an area is declared disturbed. Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik said Sept. 14 that for soldiers to perform their duties efficiently, they deserve “all the legal protection” they can get.
NATIONAL AEROSPACE WEEK Sept. 12-18, 2010 From Takeoff To Liftoff and Beyond, The Aerospace and Defense Industry is powered by people. Aerospace And Defense: The Strength Of Lift America. www.NationalAerospaceWeek.org Aerospace Industries Association Click here to view the pdf
BENGALURU, India – The India Innovation Growth Program (IIGP) generated cumulative revenue of Rs 350 crore ($76 million) from 2007-2010, and is expected to generate close to Rs 500 crore ($108 million) in 2011. The IIGP is a joint effort by Lockheed Martin and India’s Department of Science and Technology that competitively funds innovative Indian technology projects. Lockheed Martin extended its commitment to IIGP through 2012 at the Chennai Tech Expo last week.
HOT TOPICS: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Sept. 14 that he has scheduled the chamber’s version of the 2011 defense authorization bill to be considered this month — but it will include controversial Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and so-called Dream Act immigrant education provisions. The move is expected to ignite a heated debate over non-combat policies that nonetheless could endanger near-term passage of 2011 defense policymaking legislation.
LONDON — The World Trade Organization has issued its first ruling on the European Union’s case against the U.S. over alleged subsidies provided to Boeing.
LONDON — A U.K. parliamentary committee is raising concerns regarding the defense ministry’s £10.5 billion ($16.4 billion) Future Strategic Tanker public-finance initiative (PFI). In a new report, the Committee of Public Accounts raises further questions about a deal that has come under criticism before. “Using PFI to procure the £10.5 billion Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) project was inappropriate and, in the view of this committee, has not secured value for money,” Margaret Hodge, committee chairman, says.
HOUSTON — For a commercial space transportation system to ferry crew to and from the International Space Station, NASA’s astronaut corps prefers a rental-car model rather than a taxi model, says Chief Astronaut Peggy Whitson.
HOUSTON — NASA space operations chief Bill Gerstenmaier says that by January NASA will have made a final decision on whether shuttle Atlantis will fly an extra mission in June 2011. Late Sept. 14, the agency announced that veteran commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim will train as the crew for STS-335, the “launch-on-need” (i.e., rescue) mission for STS-134.
JOINT UAVS: Elbit and Safran will pool efforts to try to sell unmanned aerial vehicles in France and some international markets. The joint venture would have a product portfolio including existing systems, with Elbit potentially contributing the Hermes 450 and Hermes 900 and Sagem contributing its Patroller system. The focus is on tactical unmanned aircraft. The joint venture, which is to become operational early next year, would be based in Eragny and Montlucon, France. Both companies will contribute assets, the firms say in a joint announcement.
ON STATION: Boeing received a $1.24 billion contract extension from NASA on Sept. 14 for sustaining engineering of the International Space Station through Sept. 30, 2015. The extension brings the value of the contract initially awarded in 1995 and most recently modified in 2008 to a total of $16.2 billion.
BENGALURU, India — India’s intercontinental ballistic missile, the Agni-V, will be test-fired in 2011, the Defense Research and Development Organization’s chief says. V.K. Saraswat tells AVIATION WEEK that the missile will be launched “anytime next year,” and that “our missile programs have reached high levels of maturity in the last 15 years with the successful launches of Prithvi, Agni and BrahMos.”
Inadequate oversight of dozens of “undefinitized” contracts has put more than $2.8 billion at risk for some of the U.S. Air Force’s most important procurement programs, according to a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report. The undefinitized contractual actions (UCAs) are a tool used by procurement officers to get a company on contract for specific tasks while saving detailed negotiations until later, and are typically considered appropriate for use in areas such as urgent needs for commanders fighting a war.
LONDON — Flight and firing trials of a new weapon system designed for light and medium helicopters wrapped up recently in a joint effort between Eurocopter and Advanced Technologies & Engineering (ATE) to provide an armaments upgrade to rotorcraft. The test activities, using a Eurocopter EC635 and the Stand-Alone Weapon System (SAWS), were conducted at the Murray Hill Test Range near Pretoria. Eurocopter and South Africa’s ATE are developing the system, which includes various sensor options and a mission-and-fire-control computer.
BENGALURU, India — India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) says its homegrown Airborne Early Warning & Control System (AEW&CS), integrated on a modified Brazilian Embraer EMB-145, will fly by the end of 2011. Dr. Prahlada, head of DRDO, tells AVIATION WEEK the first EMB-145 will land in India by January 2011, and the integration work is set to begin by the middle of next year.
BENGALURU, India — A new test range for India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) will be built in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka state. Dr. Prahlada, chief of DRDO, tells AVIATION WEEK that a new facility also will be constructed in Hyderabad for DRDO to flight-test aircraft. The Chitradurga facility will focus on flight tests of unmanned aerial vehicles, air-to-ground weapons, parachutes and electronic warfare systems.
NEW DELHI — Taking another step toward Network-Centric Warfare (NCW) operations, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony has launched the $229 million AFNET (Air Force Network). AFNET will be a critical link for the air force between its command and control center and sensors such as the Airborne Early Warning and Control System, combat jets and missile squadrons. Interception of simulated enemy targets in the western center by a pair of MiG-29 fighters from an advanced airbase in the Punjab sector was played live on screens at the launch.
NATIONAL AEROSPACE WEEK Sept. 12-18, 2010 From Takeoff To Liftoff and Beyond, The Aerospace and Defense Industry is powered by people. Aerospace And Defense: The Strength Of Lift America. www.NationalAerospaceWeek.org Aerospace Industries Association Click here to view the pdf
LONDON — The tri-national consortium developing the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) has completed its system-level critical design review (CDR), setting the stage for government officials to decide the way forward on the program. Developers of the U.S.-German-Italian terminal-phase ballistic missile defense program have spent the past few months on component-level design reviews in the run-up to the system-level assessment.
The U.S. Air Force is conducting an analysis to determine what requirements it would need for a T-38 replacement, and a decision on whether and how to move forward is not expected until the Fiscal 2013 budget at the earliest, says Gen. Stephen Lorenz, who oversees the service’s training command. That budget will be assembled next summer and submitted to Congress in February 2012.
Japan’s IHI Aerospace is cooperating with the U.S. Air Force as it investigates the failure of its first Advanced Extremely High-Frequency (AEHF) satellite to reach orbit after an Aug. 14 launch, according to U.S. government sources. IHI made the satellite’s model BT-4 liquid apogee engine (LAE).
SUPER LOBBY: A bipartisan group of U.S. House Armed Services members are pushing for Congress to pass a bill that would allow Navy officials to enter into a multiyear procurement contract for more Boeing F/A-18E/F/Gs, which proponents claim will save taxpayers $600 million versus annual awards. Due to protracted dealmaking, the Navy did not submit necessary information to Congress for the 124-aircraft award until April — one month after a congressional deadline.
BENGALURU, India — India has set a Dec. 27 deadline to complete the certification process for its Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) According to P.S. Subramanyam, director for combat aircraft at the Aeronautical Development Agency, the deadline was set to make sure Tejas enters its much-awaited initial operational clearance phase. The certification process is monitored by the Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification.
The U.S. Army’s inability to properly regulate its time-and-materials (T&M) contracts in Southwest Asia likely cost the Pentagon millions of dollars, a Defense Department Inspector General (IG) report says. “Army contracting and DOD program officials did not properly award and administer the 18 T&M contracts and task orders for work performed in Southwest Asia,” the IG says.
