BENGALURU, India — Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony began his visit to South Korea Sept. 3 by signing two Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Korean defense chief Kim Tae-Young in Seoul to boost defense cooperation between the countries.
UNDERWATER RANGE: U.S. Navy officials are on the cusp of delivering Pacific warfighters a self-contained, portable, undersea training range system. The system is equipped with multiple transponders to fix the position of submarines, surface ships, unmanned undersea vehicles, mobile targets and weapons, including those deployed by naval aircraft.
BENGALURU, INDIA — India’s Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) is exploring opportunities emerging out of the increasing anti-piracy operations across the globe, and hopes to become a leader in building high-speed patrol vessels for international customers facing danger at sea. GSL is currently setting its sights on lightly armed vessels in response to ever-increasing demand due to all-time highs in pirate activity. The company is in talks with a couple of countries, and Oman has emerged as a potential frontrunner for export sales.
The recent cancellation of the Ground Combat Vehicle request for proposals (RFP) is part of an overall U.S. Army review of its major GCV programs that could reshape those different fleets and alter the course of their procurement. Indeed, the Army has already started to withhold funding for other ground vehicle programs as it analyzes requirements for another GCV RFP.
Northrop Grumman is shifting its strategy in proposing upgrades to keep the U.S. Air Force E-8C Joint Stars intelligence aircraft alive. Last year, Senate appropriators cited a $5.5 billion price to outfit the 17-aircraft airborne ground surveillance (AGS) fleet with new engines, provide a major radar replacement and add defenses. Although Northrop Grumman officials say that figure was bloated, they have moved toward a lower-cost approach for Joint Stars improvements.
TEL AVIV — As the ballistic missile threat grows in the Middle East, Tel Aviv is pushing hard to expand its long-range surveillance. Israel enjoys an advantage in that the newest Arrow 3 interceptor missile program was done in cooperation with the U.S. As a result, the two nations share systems and Israel will receive early warning of U.S. detection of ballistic missile launches spotted by satellite observation.
U.S. Aerospace, the bidder kicked out of the U.S. Air Force’s KC-135 replacement competition for allegedly submitting its proposal late, has filed a second protest of the service’s decision not to let the company compete for the $35 billion program. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which conducts bid-protest audits, lists the protest as having been filed Sept. 1 and due for a decision by Nov. 5.
Senior Air Force officials are hailing the latest changes to the service’s space management organization, which has undergone major shifts in the last decade, as a unifying measure for the entire service procurement portfolio.
NASA has revived a hurricane flight research program that has been dormant for nearly a decade with a trio of flights over Hurricane Earl with an instrument-laden DC-8 flying out of Fort Lauderdale International Airport. Joining the DC-8 mothership for the first time was NASA’s newly acquired Global Hawk aircraft, staged out of Dryden Flight Research Center in California. The first simultaneous overflights of a hurricane with the DC-8 and the Global Hawk were completed Sept. 2 and included several passes directly above the hurricane’s eye.
LONDON — The Swedish government intends to buy a new signals intelligence-collecting ship. The HMS Orion, which was delivered in 1984, now performs that role. The Swedish defense procurement agency has issued a request for information (RFI) to determine who could deliver a modern version of the Orion. The timeline for a specific procurement has not been set, although interested parties have until Nov. 12 to respond to the RFI.
JATAS SHOWDOWN: Rivals Lockheed Martin and ATK Integrated Systems await U.S. Naval Air Systems Command’s (Navair) review of their Joint and Allied Threat Awareness System (Jatas) prototypes. Jatas is to be the foundation of a new military rotorcraft protection system to detect lasers, small-arms fire, shoulder-fired rockets, guided surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air missiles.
Elbit Systems on Sept. 2 announced the acquisition of the three defense companies owned by the Israel-based Mikal group for a net payment of $69 million. These companies include artillery and mortar producer Soltam, armored vehicle refurbishing expert Saymar and electro-optic (EO) specialist ITL.
HOUSTON — Veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield will become the first Canadian to serve as the commander of the International Space Station (ISS) during the Expedition 35 mission in March 2013, NASA and its major partners in the program announced Sept. 2.
LONDON — Embraer has secured a second foreign partner for its KC-390 military tanker/transport development program, with the Colombian government signaling its intent to buy 12 of the aircraft. The agreement follows only a few days after Chile expressed its intent to take six of the aircraft. In both cases, the deals come with a commitment by Embraer to place KC-390 work with companies in those countries.
NEW DELHI — India’s space industry has braved the pitfalls of global recession, and in fact its budgets are expected to rise substantially, according to a study released at the recent Bengaluru Space Expo. The study is by Deloitte, the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) marketing arm, Antrix. The study points out that India’s space budget of $1.26 billion for 2010 was increased by an estimated 22% from the previous year. Between 2003 to 2010, funding grew by 144%.
UNHAPPY HOLIDAYS: In a sobering Labor Day message to employees of Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDSS), CEO Dennis Muilenburg says there will be “overhead job reduction as part of our effort to drive competitiveness and future growth.” A company official says BDSS is still determining how many jobs are to be lost. The coming layoffs are expected to begin this fall and carry on into early next year. They will be in addition to the 1,000 job cuts announced last year in response to a speech by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April 2009.
Lockheed Martin CEO Robert Stephens expects a “rephasing” of flight testing for the F-35B short take-off, vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter to emerge from a comprehensive review of the program, due to report in November.
TEL AVIV — The biggest missile threat to Israel is the heavy artillery rocket with a half-ton warhead that can be fired — with increasing accuracy — by the hundreds, perhaps thousands into large areas of the nation.
MOSCOW — Three Glonass-M navigation spacecraft were orbited by a Proton M with a DM upper stage on Sept. 2, Russian space forces report. The spacecraft were designated as Kosmos 2464, 2465 and 2466. The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan brings the navigation constellation to 26 satellites, including two in reserve.
