The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has tried to do too many things too fast, and its problems have been compounded because the development effort was launched without a complete test program, says a top Pentagon advisor. Paul Kaminski is the current chairman of the Defense Science Board and CEO of Technovation, as well as a former undersecretary of defense for acquisition and technology and director for low observable technology.
BENGALURU, India – Indian defense officials have given conflicting statements about the country’s long-awaited fighter selection, with Defense Minister A.K. Antony indicating the final choice will be pushed into 2012, but the country’s top air force official pointing to a selection this October.
BENGALURU, India — Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) anticipates developing and producing 1,500 helicopters of various sizes in the next decade. “Out of the 1,500 choppers, 100 would be Advanced Light Helicopters, 300 Light Utility Helicopters and the remaining would be the Indian Multi Role Helicopters in the 10-12-ton class,” said HAL’s finance director and acting chairman, D. Shivamurti, during a press event.
The U.S. Coast Guard is undergoing a “stem-to-stern” organizational and operation review to see which missions it should keep and those it should shed, says Adm. Bob Papp, Coast Guard commandant. “We may need to reduce the number and range of some of the capabilities we’ve added since 9/11,” Papp said Feb. 10 during his State of the Coast Guard address. He says the Coast Guard needs to focus its people and equipment on its most important missions.
BENGALURU, India — The first flight of the naval version of India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) is expected to take place by May or June of this year. The Naval Prototype-1 (NP-1) was rolled out on July 6, 2010. It is currently undergoing integration tests at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. facility in Bengaluru.
BENGALURU, India — MBDA and Rafael are competing to provide new weapons systems for India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.-built Sepecat Jaguar fighters. The Jaguar, a ground attack aircraft, has bombs under the wings, so above the wing is where the missiles will be placed. MBDA is pitching the Asraam (Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile). It is highlighting the missile’s high speed and the fact that in the past Asraams were installed on Jaguars operated by the U.K. air force.
BENGALURU, India — Boeing anticipates that the production line for its C-17 military transport will end in about five years. Forecast International has predicted that Boeing will shutter the C-17 production line in 2016. Mark Kronenberg, VP for international business development Boeing Defense, Space & Security, agrees that this is likely. He says it will be difficult to keep the production line open “above and beyond” 2016.
In the wake of the recent U.S. Defense Department decision to scuttle the U.S. Marine Corps’ anointed amphibious mission tool of the future — the General Dynamics Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle — a major Washington think tank is warning that the Pentagon needs to think more strategically when considering cuts to its amphibious resources.
LONDON — Textron hopes to build on its success in selling the Sensor-Fuzed Weapon (SFW) to India by expanding its military operations in the market. Two prospects on the horizon are the Aerosonde unmanned aircraft and Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), the company says. India is increasingly interested in monitoring sea approaches, partly because the terrorists who attacked Mumbai in 2008 arrived by sea. The country has already demonstrated the system in a ship-based application.
LEAN MONTHS: NASA would be cut $379 million for the remainder of fiscal 2011 as part of more than $74 billion in cuts proposed by the new Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which operates the nation’s weather satellites, would take a $336 million hit for the seven months remaining in the fiscal year. The cuts, counted against the Obama administration’s fiscal 2011 budget request, would be incorporated in a continuing resolution on spending through Sept. 30.
MANTECH MRAPS: ManTech International said Feb. 7 it was awarded an Army contract to continue providing logistics sustainment and support for the U.S. military’s Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) family of vehicles, valued at $488 million for an initial period of performance and options totaling 11 months.
HOUSTON — Cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka plan to venture outside the International Space Station’s Russian segment on Feb. 16, installing and collecting science experiments as well as deploying a small satellite that will transmit greetings commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight over amateur radio. Kondratyev and Skripochka, who teamed for a Jan. 21 excursion, are scheduled to depart the Pirs airlock at 7:45 a.m. EST and spend 6 hr. outside the station.
NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have started negotiating for at least two more years of Soyuz flights to the International Space Station (ISS) by U.S., European, Japanese and Canadian astronauts, as the space shuttle era draws to a close with no other replacement available. “We are negotiating for more Soyuz seats because we’re nearing the three-year lead time for ordering seats beyond the current contract,” the U.S. agency stated Feb. 9. “We are beginning discussions on the acquisition of crew-rotation services for 2014 and 2015.”
BETTER BOOKKEEPING: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) wants the Pentagon to be much more financially responsible, warning service leaders that he will continue to push for a budget freeze of all Defense Department base-budget non-military personnel accounts until the department complies with federal law regarding auditable financial statements. “The Pentagon is one of the few agencies in the federal government that cannot produce auditable financial statements,” Coburn says in a recent letter to Adm. Gary Roughhead, chief of naval operations.
MOORESTOWN, N.J. — With the U.S. Navy’s continuing focus on further developing the ballistic missile defense (BMD) capabilities of the Lockheed Martin Aegis ship defense system, a new testing site is being planned in Hawaii to mirror other BMD testing facilities there, Lockheed officials acknowledge. Work should start on the site within the next couple of years, Lockheed officials say.
CAPE CANAVERAL — Space Florida is putting on a happy face about the spending plan proposed by tea party darling Gov. Rick Scott (R), who wants to cut funding by almost two-thirds for the state agency that aims to develop Florida’s aerospace and related businesses.
DOHA, Qatar — The German government is trying to resolve an internal disagreement about how to shape the future of European aerospace giant EADS. Daimler AG, one of the main EADS shareholders, has indicated it would like to sell its stake sooner rather than later, industry sources say. Like the French government, Daimler currently holds 15%; 7.5% each is controlled by the Lagardere Group and a consortium of mainly German banks . The Spanish state has a 5.4% stake.
Northrop Grumman is claiming another benchmark in developing its AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) system for the U.S. Marine Corps, and the contractor is pitching the Air Force and Army as potential customers too.
The commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps says the nation’s expeditionary armed service will rededicate itself to its “frugal roots” under his young tenure. The changes include post-Afghanistan active end strength reductions, focusing on a “middleweight” force posture, eliminating “unnecessary” headquarters and management, reorganizing irregular capabilities and transitioning 7% of non-operational forces to operational billets.
NEW YORK — Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter is encouraging lower-tier suppliers to consider consolidation, though the Pentagon will not support further mergers and acquisitions among the few prime contractors left in the defense sector.
LONDON — Britain’s new chief of defense materiel, Bernard Gray, has embarked on a major review of program costs. Gray, who took the role in January after heading an independent panel highly critical of defense procurement, is “doing an in-depth study” of the cost of the acquisition program the Defense Ministry has on the books, the ministry’s permanent undersecretary, Ursula Brennan, tells Parliament’s defense committee. The review should help the ministry enter future spending planning rounds with greater certainty, she says.
MOVING UP: The U.S. Air Force’s first Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite has reached a perigee of more than 13,350 km. (8,295 mi.) on its slow journey to geosynchronous orbit 35,888 km. over the Earth. The bipropellant liquid apogee engine made by IHI Aerospace failed after an August launch, crippling the satellite’s ability to quickly reach orbit. Air Force officials say that the satellite’s electric Hall Current Thrusters have achieved more than 1,400 hr. of successful operation since launch; these are being used as the backup plan to slowly reach orbit.
A hefty entry in the next round of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) seed-money effort would be able to lift 44,500 lb. of payload to the International Space Station, enough for any of the commercial crew capsules under development as potential space shuttle replacements.
LONDON — The U.K. government has formally pulled the plug on its £6 billion ($9.6 billion) search-and-rescue helicopter (SAR-H) outsourcing effort and is going back to the drawing board to assess how to meet the requirement. The private finance initiative has been in trouble since late last year, when procurement irregularities came to light on the eve of a formal contract signature with the Soteria consortium, comprising CHC Helicopter Corp., Thales, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Sikorsky, offering the S-92.
