FARNBOROUGH — U.S. export controls could harm the nation’s advantage in unmanned aircraft technologies by encouraging foreign competitors to develop their own systems, Northrop Grumman’s top executive warns. CEO Wes Bush says the nation should learn its lesson from the satellite industry, where blanket restrictions imposed on the sale or sharing of technologies spurred the rise of new competitors in commercial satellites and some lower-end military communications technologies.
FARNBOROUGH — Liam Fox, the British secretary of state for defense, is committing the government to providing a revamped Defense Industrial Strategy to industry shortly after it concludes its strategic review. Fox, in a keynote address at the Farnborough International Airshow here July 20, told an audience of senior industrialists that a “new Defense Industrial Strategy” would be published this year. The outcome of the government’s Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) is expected to be made public in late October.
The House Science Committee has introduced a five-year NASA authorization bill that incorporates most of the elements of the authorization already moving through the Senate, suggesting for the first time that a compromise version of President Barack Obama’s proposed space policy could be enacted and funded during this fiscal year.
AVENGER: A second Avenger unmanned aircraft is in production and will fly late this year, with a third to follow, according to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. Compared with the first Avenger, which flew in April 2009, the second example of the jet-powered Predator-family UAV has a 6 ft.-longer fuselage, at 44 ft., and twice the payload capacity, at 6,000 lb. General Atomics says the 400-kt. UAV can fly at up to 50,000 ft. for 20 hr. The Avenger is being proposed for the U.K.’s Scavenger deep and persistent surveillance UAV requirement.
SILENT LAUNCH: Boeing launched an AIM-120 missile from a prototype conformal weapons bay (CWB) on its F-15E1 testbed aircraft on July 14. The 80-min. flight from Pt. Mugu, Calif., validated the flightworthiness of the CWB and deployment of the missile from the internal bay, the company says. The CWB is a key feature of the stealthier F-15SE Silent Eagle, and reduces radar cross-section by enabling bombs and missiles to be carried internally. Boeing is awaiting an export license to supply data on the Silent Eagle to South Korea, the first potential customer.
FARNBOROUGH — Montreal-based CAE is promoting technology to help guide pilots through poor-visibility landings using “data fusion” to combine information gleaned from multiple sensors and sources in real time.
LONDON — Sikorsky Aircraft is aiming to double its international sales to about $2 billion by 2014, looking for new ways to keep growing as U.S. defense spending levels off.
LONDON — The ability to deliver medium/heavyweight helicopters by April 2013 will likely be key to an ongoing helicopter competition in Sweden. The country is eager to field the helos and have them in Afghanistan by the appointed date to be used for medical evacuation duties, Swedish air force chief Maj. Gen. Anders Silwer says. “We’ve had too few helos” in inventory, he notes.
LONDON — EADS North America Chief Executive Officer Sean O’Keefe says he plans to mushroom the company’s revenues to $10 billion by 2020, and winning the U.S. Air Force KC-X refueling tanker competition is a large part of achieving this goal. Revenue in 2009 was $1.2 billion, according to O’Keefe’s spokesman, Guy Hicks. The KC-X program to replace 179 KC-135 refuelers is estimated to be worth about $35 billion. Each contestant must meet 373 mandatory requirements, and a winner will be determined largely on cost.
LONDON — In response to the pending contraction in European defense spending due to deep national fiscal problems, EADS will need to step up its effort to globalize, says Stefan Zoller, CEO of EADS Defense & Security. Just how deeply the European budget crisis will affect EADS and defense markets more generally is not certain. But Zoller notes that “it is quite clear that European markets will decline or will be stable at the best.”
FARNBOROUGH — Lockheed Martin and Alenia officials say an agreement to build a final assembly and checkout (FACO) facility in Italy for the stealthy F-35 fighter has finally been inked after an extended negotiation period.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., of Sunnyvale, Calif., was awarded a $34,804,061 contract modification which will exercise the fourth option for Space Based Infrared Systems Highly Elliptical Earth Orbit payload three Launch and Early On-Orbit Support. At this time, $548,174 has been obligated. ISSW/PKF, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA8810-08-C-0002; P00012).
FARNBOROUGH — Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter says one of his primary missions in meeting with industry executives at this week’s Farnborough International Airshow here is to emphasize the need to improve affordability and productivity in weapon systems. Carter was on the ground for less than a day on July 19, and met with top executives. He also met with senior British officials to discuss joint projects. He is the most senior official from the U.S. Defense Department to attend the show.
LONDON — EADS and other government partners in the A400M military airlifter program will have to wait a few more months before a new contract governing the airlifter is in place, EADS CEO Louis Gallois believes. In March, the partner governments and industry agreed on a way forward for the three-year-delayed and over-budget aircraft, but translating that into a contract remains to be done. Airbus Military was hoping a new contract could be in place by around midyear, but that has failed to happen.
ARMY Raydon Corp., Daytona Beach, Fla., was awarded on July 9 a $36,355,550 firm-fixed-price contract. This contract is for 11 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle virtual trainers for the Army National Guard. The work is to be performed in Daytona Beach, Fla., with an estimated completion date of Nov. 30, 2011. More than 50 bids were solicited with one bid received. National Guard Bureau, ZC-AQ, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity (W9133L-10-F-0130).
LONDON — After several months of seeing some of its NH90 helicopters grounded owing to engine problems, Eurocopter says it has found the root cause of the problem and identified a fix. The four incidents involving different operators were caused by an error in the hot start procedure by flight crew, which caused problems with seals and bearings. As an interim measure, the NH90s could be operated with five-hour boroscopic inspection intervals.
LONDON — Royal Thai Air Force Gripen pilots and technicians are undergoing training in Sweden to allow Squadron 701 of the 7th Wing to go operational next year. Thailand is initially buying six Gripens, with a plan to grow that to 12 aircraft. Further purchases are possible, but will have to await the first operational experiences with the fighter in Thailand, says Wing Cdr. Jackkrit Thammavichai, who will be the first squadron commander. However, he says, “I foresee no problem” in making the case for more aircraft.
LONDON — The partnership between rivals Lockheed Martin and Boeing to develop a next-generation bomber for the U.S. Air Force appears to have fizzled, with Boeing officials now saying they are reassessing their strategy on a future strike system.
LONDON — Boeing Defense, Space and Security President Dennis Muilenburg says he plans to boost revenue by 25% over five years, with a significant portion of that coming from international sales as the U.S. defense budget tightens. Already, international sales are on the rise, he told reporters during a July 18 press roundtable in advance of this week’s Farnborough International Airshow. Over the past five years, revenue from international sales has gone from 7% to 16% of the total for the BDS unit.
LONDON — Full cooperation among all of the nations in the European Space Agency (ESA) on space situational awareness technologies is unlikely because of security concerns, says Francois Auque, CEO of EADS Astrium.
BEIJING — The Japanese ministry of defense is considering ordering a further batch of about 20 F-2 strike fighters from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to sustain the country’s combat aircraft production base, the Sankei newspaper says. The aircraft would replace F-4 Phantoms in the air-to-air role and would be ordered in addition to the 94 that, according to a 2006 plan, were supposed to complete the F-2 program. By ordering extra F-2s, the ministry would protect the industry from delays in choosing an aircraft for the follow-on program, called F-X.
