MELBOURNE, Australia — The market for the Australian-U.S. Nulka naval decoy may be expanding by a factor of two, thanks to a prospective easing of restrictions on exports of the hovering rocket. As the system is fitted to ever-larger ships previously thought impossible to defend with decoys, there are signs that it will even go aboard the largest of all — U.S. aircraft carriers — giving them one more defense layer to add to the several that already surround them.
PARIS Better than expected sales activity in the first months of the year is allowing Saab to increase its earnings guidance for 2009, but the Swedish defense and aerospace company remains cautious about the long-term outlook. The company says that for the year, sales will increase over 2008 levels. The previous guidance was for flat sales development. Sales in the first half were up 6 percent to 11.7 billion Swedish kronor ($1.57 billion).
ITEP STEP: The U.S. Army is taking another step on the long road towards acquiring a new 3,000 shaft horsepower turboshaft to re-engine Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, issuing a request for information for the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP). This is intended to develop and qualify a powerplant demonstrated under the Advanced Affordable Turbine Engine (AATE) program. General Electric, with the GE3000, and Honeywell/Pratt & Whitney, with the HPW3000, plan to run their competing AATE demonstrator engines in 2011.
GYRO TAKEAWAY: Lockheed Martin has agreed to acquire Gyrocam Systems, a privately owned supplier of gyrostabilized optical surveillance systems. Sarasota, Fla.-based Gyrocam’s vehicle mast-mounted sensors are installed on MRAPs deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the company supplies stationary and shipborne mast-mounted systems as well as airborne stabilized sensors. Terms of the transaction, expected to close this quarter, have not been disclosed.
Boeing has withdrawn its protest of the award of the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) system space segment contract to Lockheed Martin. The spring protest to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which followed an earlier complaint late last December, sought to overturn a $1.09 billion award by NASA for two GOES-R weather satellites, plus an option for a third, issued on Dec. 10.
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii — The former commander of the Hawaii Air National Guard, who recently moved to the staff of U.S. Pacific Command, is still planning on receiving the F-22 Raptor in Hawaii, despite efforts in Washington to cap production of the stealthy Lockheed Martin fighter.
SUNSET DAYS: After two decades of service that have seen it image the equivalent of the Earth’s total surface 46 times, Europe’s Spot 2 is headed for retirement. The spacecraft, launched in 1990, will be removed from its low Earth trajectory on July 30 and left in a harmless orbit from which it will re-enter the atmosphere 25 years hence. Spot Image, which operates the satellite, can still call on Spot 5 and 4 until two new spacecraft, Spot 6 and 7, are deployed in 2012-14.
THIRD CUTTER: First lady Michelle Obama will serve as the sponsor for the Stratton, the third National Security Cutter (NSC). The keel was laid on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel on July 20 at Northrop Grumman’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., marking the start of construction. This is the first time a first lady has ever sponsored a Coast Guard cutter, this one named for Capt. Dorothy Stratton, who directed the Coast Guard’s Women’s Reserve during World War II.
SIERRA GRAND: South Korea has requested the potential $1 billion sale of eight Sikorsky MH-60S helicopters equipped for airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM). The Korean Navy has been evaluating the MH-60S and AgustaWestland AW101 for its requirement to deploy four AMCM helicopters by 2012 and four more by 2015. The MH-60S would be equipped with AQS-20A towed sonar, AES-1 laser mine detector, AQS-235 mine neutralization system, ALQ-220 magnetic/acoustic minesweeping system and the AWS-2 30mm gun firing a supercavitating projectile.
The U.S. Senate has thrown a surprise twist into the ongoing debate over pursuing a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, adopting language that could eventually block the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 in the 2010 defense budget.
Astronauts used the robotics arm on Japan’s Kibo laboratory module to install three payload packages on the lab’s new exposed facility, delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) by the space shuttle Endeavour, completing installation of the outpost’s largest research facility.
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii — The U.S. Air Force’s intelligence community is taking a new and leading role in designing war games for near-term threats. Pacific Vision, as the series is called, tries to weigh budgets — which are predicted to shrink — against what possible military foes could field, from advanced missiles to authorless cyberwar. Pacific Air Forces’ former intelligence chief, Col. Marty Neubauer (ret.), was directed to look at pressing, near-term issues and not to focus on outyear problems.
An Israeli Arrow-2 interceptor missile failed to launch during a test of the system July 22 along the West Coast of the United States. The U.S. range exceeds the size of facilities in Israel and was required for the demonstration. During the test, a long-range ballistic missile target was dropped from a C-17. Several sensors, including the Israeli Green Pine radar and the U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), PAC-3 and Aegis ship-based radars, acquired the target and tracked it.
The Pentagon’s ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is exploring the creation of air units for irregular warfare, and whether such units would be owned by Special Forces or conventional troops, according to the Pentagon’s top civilian official in irregular warfare needs. Michael Vickers, assistant secretary of defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities, thinks that a “light air” component for irregular warfare is an idea whose time has come.
TOKYO — A lot of attention is paid to Japan’s F-X and F-XX fighter programs, but of more lasting importance is its work in shaping an air arm that can support allied military operations in places like Iraq or the Indian Ocean, or humanitarian aid and disaster relief virtually anywhere. In an exclusive interview with Aviation Week, Col. Tanotsu Kidono, head of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) air staff’s Defense Plans, Policies and Programs Division, discussed tankers, transports and patrol aircraft.
U.S. defense contractors continue to post healthy sales and profits, even as they warily eye an uncertain future thanks to the economic downturn and proposed cutbacks in the U.S. defense budget. L-3 Communications beat analysts’ expectations with a 6 percent rise in second-quarter sales over last year to $3.9 billion. Net income fell $50 million to $225 million. The company revised its full-year earnings guidance up to between $7.25 and $7.35 earnings per share, on net sales of between $15.5 billion and $15.7 billion.
Boeing has completed the first flight of the first F/A-18F for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), after its July 8 unveiling. The flight lasted more than an hour and took place from Lambert International Airport, Mo., near Boeing’s St. Louis facilities. Boeing says the aircraft will be delivered before August, which the company says is three months early (Aerospace DAILY, July 9). The next milestone looms in March when the first Super Hornet is due at RAAF Amberley. All 24 of the aircraft are due to be handed over before the end of 2011.
Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) unit revenues were up in the second quarter, but the unit’s performance was overshadowed by issues at the company’s Commercial Airplanes division. IDS beat analysts’ expectations with revenues of $8.7 billion for the second quarter, up 9 percent over the same period in 2008. Boeing Military Aircraft saw second-quarter revenue up 3 percent to $3.4 billion, with margins up 11.7 percent compared with 2008. The P-8A had its first flight, and the Fiscal 2009 Supplemental authorized funding for eight U.S. Air Force C-17s.
LOUD STARS: The Donald Rumsfeld-led Defense Department did not violate U.S. anti-propaganda law in its outreach to retired military officers (RMOs) to support George W. Bush administration policies, U.S. Government Accountability Office auditors have ruled. But the retired officers’ industrial affiliations remain an unanswered concern. “Clearly, DOD attempted to favorably influence public opinion with respect to the administration’s war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan through the RMOs,” auditors said in a decision released July 21.
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii — The need for stealth in the Pacific and Asia isn’t limited to manned fighters; stealthy, unmanned reconnaissance and strike aircraft are also on the wish list.
Astronomers are eagerly awaiting a chance to try out Europe’s Herschel infrared telescope, the largest ever sent to space, after test observations with all three instruments proved promising.
CHAIRMAN OUSTED: Military microwave components supplier Herley Industries replaced Myron Levy as chairman and CEO and announced a new focus on bolstering revenues and profits. David Lieberman, a New York lawyer and longtime board member, becomes chairman. Richard Poirier, general manager of the company’s New England operations, will become CEO. Levy had worked for Herley since 1988 and was promoted to the top job after the company was indicted for trying to defraud the government on military contracts.
