The new U.S.-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty does not cover conventional weapons, which is why it will not inhibit proposed prompt global strike (PGS) capabilities or even missile defenses, a key U.S. diplomat told Washington reporters March 29.
NEW DELHI — It was a busy weekend for the Indian military, with three missile tests carried out by the Defense Research Development Organization. On March 28, a 700-km. (435-mile) range Agni-1 short-range ballistic missile was fired from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range at Wheeler Island on the Bay of Bengal in the east Indian state of Orissa. The test was part of the army’s user-training exercise. It hit the target after a 500-sec. flight, one government official reportedly said.
LONDON — European regulators have given approval for Dassault Systemes to buy the IBM unit distributing product life cycle management. Dassault Systemes, which is behind major aircraft design software tools, most notably the Catia suite, in October announced plans to buy the IBM sales and client support operations. The IBM unit was already selling Dassault Systemes products. The deal carries a price tag of $600 million in cash.
NATION BUILDING: Georgia, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary and Latvia will receive Pentagon funds to help troops from those nations operate with U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, the U.S. Defense Department announced March 26. Yemen and the Philippines will also receive money to strengthen their militaries inside their countries. Called Section 1206 for the portion of the 2006 defense authorization act that created it, the funds are supposed to help allies develop coalition capacity to work effectively with U.S. forces.
LONDON – The U.K. Defense Ministry is now confirming what has been expected for some time — that it intends to cut its procurement plans for the Airbus Military A400M airlifter to 22 units, following industry and the partner nations outlining a new path for the much-delayed program.
BIG STUFF: Small companies face challenges to getting into federal contracting, difficulty retaining that business as they grow and daunting costs that can even kill some of them along the way, an Aerospace Industries Association member and industry executive told the House Small Business Committee recently. “The federal contracting process is complex and, for small businesses, the process can be too difficult to manage,” said Robert Sprole III, chief executive of Therm, which manufactures jet engine turbine air foils.
NEW DELHI —Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is close to accepting a 26% equity stake in a joint venture with India’s public sector company, Bharat Electronics Ltd., giving speed to the overdue project. The venture is to develop advanced imaging infrared seekers for the Python 5 fifth-generation air-to-air missile. India has ordered 18 Spyder systems that use advanced air-to-air missiles as ground-launched surface-to-air missiles. Besides the Python 5, it has the beyond-visual-range Derby missile, which has an active seeker.
FRANKFURT and LONDON — EADS plans to decide whether it will bid for the U.S. Air Force’s tanker within the next two weeks, Airbus CEO Thomas Enders told Aviation Week. But at this stage, Enders is “still skeptical” if EADS should go ahead with a bid.
AUSTRALIAN CHINOOKS: The Australian Defense Materiel Organization (DMO) signed a $513.5 million contract with the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command to acquire seven Boeing CH-47F Chinook helicopters, two simulators and associated spares, according to a DMO statement. The aircraft will replace the existing fleet of six CH-47D Chinooks, with the first two to enter service in 2014. All seven should be in service by 2017.
The U.S. Air Force officially launched its plan to replace its HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopter fleet with the release of a request for information (RFI) March 23. The Air Force abandoned its last effort to replace the Pave Hawk — the Combat, Search and Rescue Replacement (CSAR-X) program — after multiple industry protests following an initial award to Boeing (Aerospace DAILY, April 7, 2009).
The U.S. Air Force is moving ahead with pathfinder efforts to certify biofuel blends in its aircraft following the March 25 feasibility demonstration flight by an A-10 using a 50:50 blend of biomass-derived and conventional jet fuel. Full certification of a 50% biofuel blend will begin late this summer with the Pratt & Whitney F117-powered Boeing C-17 airlifter, representing the mobility fleet, according to Jeff Braun, director of the USAF Alternative Fuels Certification office.
Pentagon procurement chief Ashton Carter says that as the Defense Department studies what its “family of systems” for future strike options will be, it is keeping in mind that a “family of industry” must be supported to underpin it. The Air Force-led Next-Generation Bomber was halted last year in favor of a review of what systems — including aircraft or long-range strike missiles — would be needed for this future mission.
LONDON — London’s strategic relationship with Washington is in a state of flux, faced with the more pragmatic approach of the Obama administration in the near term, and fundamental questions over the necessary military capability and investment in the medium-to-long term, British parliamentarians argue.
SANTIAGO, Chile — A law reforming Chile’s ministry of defense, approved last month under the Bachelet administration, appoints a joint chief of staff and will create two undersecretaries to encompass all three services, instead of one responsible for each. The new joint chief of the defense staff is the army’s chief of staff, Gen. Cristian Le Dantec, who assumed the role two weeks ago.
ARMY QinetiQ of North America, Reston, Va., was awarded on March 19, 2010, a $19,533,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the Man-Wearable Gun Shot Detection Systems. The work is to be performed in Cheswick, Pa., with an estimated completion date of March 19, 2012. Bids were solicited on the World Wide Web with one bid received. Research, Development & Engineering Command Contracting Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-10-D-0021).
SUPERCOMPUTING: NASA is extending by one year its contract with Computer Sciences Corp. of Lanham, Md., to provide support services to the Advanced Supercomputing Division at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The $57 million extension begins April 1 and will continue to March 31, 2011. The contract has a maximum value of approximately $597 million if all options are exercised.
ARMY AM General, LLC, South Bend, Ind., was awarded on March 22 a $317,961,404 firm-fixed-price contract to add 2,122 high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles to contract. The work is to be performed in Mishawaka, Ind., with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2010. One bid was solicited with one bid received. TACOM Warren, AMSTA-AQ-ATCA, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (DAAE07-01-C-S001).
The communications hardware that will allow International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers to monitor and command SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has been activated aboard the orbital outpost. Space shuttle Atlantis delivered the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Communication Unit to the ISS during mission STS-129 in November. Checkout began in late January, when ISS Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams worked with ground teams at Mission Control-Houston and SpaceX headquarters in California to power the system up.
LONDON — British aerospace and defense lobbyist ADS is pushing for a clear industrial development element in the upcoming Strategic Defense Review, which has far-reaching implications for the U.K. sector. Setting out its agenda on March 29 for the political parties in the run up to a national election, ADS argues both the military and wider economic benefits of sustaining a broad range of military development and manufacturing onshore. The election must be held no later than June.
BLEAK HOUSE: Just how deep funding cuts may be is the question on the U.K. defense and aerospace sector’s mind following some dire prognostications by the Labour government’s finance minister, Alistair Darling. In an interview with the BBC last week Darling appeared to suggest funding restraints on government departments over the next few years could be worse than during the Margaret Thatcher-era. Labour faces a general election no later than June.
STATION POSSIBILITIES: Luigi Pasquali, CEO of Thales Alenia Space’s Italian arm, says the U.S. decision to agree to prolong the life of the International Space Station (ISS) at least through 2020 may open up more opportunities for international partners than initially thought.
