PROTEST UPDATE: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has agreed to review a “streamlined” version of Boeing’s protest of the U.S. Air Force’s tanker decision. Boeing filed a truncated version of its original March 11 protest after the U.S. Air Force and the winner, a Northrop Grumman/EADS North America team, filed motions to dismiss many of its claims. Northrop Grumman says the move by GAO supports the company’s view that many of Boeing’s complaints should have been raised last year, prior to the downselect. GAO will rule on the issue by late June.
Lockheed Martin announced April 2 that the third VH-71 helicopter built for the Presidential Helicopter program, Test Vehicle 3 (TV-3), has arrived in the U.S. and will be the first VH-71 to undergo final assembly at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, N.Y. The Navy-owned TV-3 was transported aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane from AgustaWestland’s facility in Yeovil, England, to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., before flying to Owego.
The British Defense Ministry is finally going ahead with a considerably delayed – but sorely needed – overhaul of its air transport tasking computer software infrastructure. The Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Air Movements Operation (AMO) project is due to enter full service in September 2009, replacing the Air Movements Information System presently in use. The system selected to meet the AMO requirement, dubbed “Swift2Move,” is being developed for the ministry by a Thales-led team.
The provisional commander of the U.S. Air Force’s nascent cyber command suggests the U.S. military may need to rethink — and essentially loosen — its definition of uniformed personnel, as well as streamline and quicken its acquisition processes to meet growing cyberwarfare needs. “Perhaps we need a different kind of warrior in this domain,” Maj. Gen. William Lord told a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) audience. “Today, all of our armed forces have a physical fitness test that requires us to ... meet some physical fitness standards.
RADIO DAYS: Lockheed Martin announced April 1 that it was awarded a $766 million System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract to provide the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed (AMF) element of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS). The AMF JTRS network component will provide interoperable communication for more than 160 platform types including fixed and rotary wing aircraft, submarines and surface ships, and fixed stations worldwide. The Lockheed Martin AMF JTRS team includes BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
Canadian maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider Vector Aerospace has acquired the rotary wing and component MRO businesses of the U.K.’s Defence Aviation and Repair Agency (DARA), part of the Ministry of Defence, in a deal worth GBP17 million ($33.7 million). Vector’s near-term focus is to meet the defense ministry’s front line requirements, Vector spokesman Scott Langdon said. He added that it plans little to no change in the companies’ staffs, and plans to devote attention to employee retention and development.
Congress wants its investigative arm to figure out what can be done about contradictory Defense Department transportation regulations and the detrimental impact those rules have on the Pentagon’s bottom line and DOD contractors. Defense Department regulations apparently fail to properly differentiate between air cargo carriers and forwarders responsible for those shipments. Pentagon rules also apparently mandate that cargo be shipped by a certain mode – even though another one might be cheaper.
Vought Aircraft Industries has signed a $400 million multiyear contract with Bell Helicopter to manufacture the empennage, ramp and ramp door for the V-22 Osprey. The contract covers deliveries through 2013 and mirrors work recently issued by the U.S. Navy that also covers MV-22s for use by the Marines and CV-22s for the Air Force.
AERO R&D: The major airline trade associations have joined forces with an environmental group to call for bolstering NASA and FAA environmental aeronautics research and development (R&D) programs. Both the Air Transport Association and the International Air Transport Association are urging Congress to beef up the R&D programs to look for environmentally friendly efficiencies and cost savings.
Swedish-based Saab Bofors Dynamics and its program partner Diehl BGT Defence of Germany have conducted the first land attack live firing demonstration of their new RBS 15 Mk 3 surface-to-surface missile, Saab said April 2. The RBS 15 Mk 3 is the latest derivative of the RBS 15 family of anti-ship missiles, featuring a new Global Postioning System-based precision attack functionality against point targets ashore.
TOKYO – Japan has completed its ballistic missile defense system for the Tokyo region, with the final battery of Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) missiles installed at the Kasumigaura Ground Self-Defense Force base in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of the capital, on March 29. The Defense Ministry began PAC-3 deployments in March 2007. The Kasumigaura battery is one of four that act as a second layer protecting Tokyo, ready to intercept ballistic missiles that penetrate the Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) first layer installed in Aegis destroyers.
The German military has finally kicked off a competition for a medium altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. The program has been some time in the making, with senior officials for the German air force clamoring for well more than a year for the program to move forward. Operations in Afghanistan have highlighted the need for the type of real-time video the system should provide. The German air force’s reconnaissance Tornados only provide still photos, and not in real time.
A potential budget shortfall for domestic military air patrols flared as a leading concern in a House Armed Services (HASC) readiness subcommittee hearing April 1, with commanding Army and Air Force National Guard and reserve generals calling for further inclusion of the mission under the base U.S. Air Force budget.
Cancellation of the Space Radar (SR) program, now confirmed by contractors, marks another setback for the snakebitten U.S. military space imaging program.
The U.S. Air Force made it clear that “extra credit” would be awarded to competitors for the air refueling tanker contract if they exceeded the minimum capability threshold, the service’s chief acquisition officer told Congress April 1. Losing bidder Boeing, which offered a modified version of its 767, has filed a formal protest of the award to an Airbus 330 variant offered by a Northrop Grumman/EADS team. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will rule on the validity of Boeing’s claims.
The best way to rid the world of all nuclear weapons may not be with treaties and counting protocols but with a shared approach to defense, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright says. The expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is a little more than a year away, but Cartwright, vice chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, does not necessarily believe its renewal is the right answer to curbing proliferation.
Hybrid electric drives may not provide the hoped-for fuel efficiency gains previously thought, a Future Combat Systems (FCS) official says. Manned Ground Vehicles (MGV), effectively at the core of the U.S. Army’s FCS program, will be powered by hybrid electric drive in the hope of maximizing energy use for the battlefield vehicles. But as testing has proceeded, the evidence has shown only an incremental difference between hybrid electric drive and nonhybrid systems.
Thales is on the brink of signing a deal with Damen Shipyards-owned Schelde Naval Shipbuilding for the supply of combat systems for three Sigma-class missile corvettes that the Netherlands-based shipbuilder sold to Morocco earlier this year for delivery by 2012. According to Schelde director Hein van Ameijden, agreement has been reached with Thales, but sources within the defense electronics group say a few minor issues remain to be cleared before the contract can be officially announced.
Northrop Grumman has proposed a demonstration to the U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) in which U.S. military users would be able to tap Israel’s new TecSar/Polaris 1 imaging radar satellite for a period this summer.
NEW DELHI — Boeing is continuing its push into Indian aerospace with the establishment of a business office in the country for subsidiary Aviall Inc. that is scheduled to open during the second half of this year. “We plan to keep it [Aviall] independent to cover all aspects of civil and military (products) and teaming in the future,” said Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing Precision Engagement and Mobility Systems. “We see it branching out in the future to look after military sales.”
China’s second unmanned lunar mission, Chang’e 2, will be a lunar orbiter, not a rover as implied earlier by Chinese reports. Planned for launch in 2009-2010, it will carry somewhat different instrumentation than Chang’e 1, but will make no attempt to land, according to Ye Peijiam, who helped design the highly successful Chang’e 1. That spacecraft is still operating in lunar orbit.
ARMY ARMOR: California-based Ceradyne announced April 1 a $41.1 million order from the U.S. Army for ceramic body armor. The Enhanced Side Ballistic Inserts (ESBI) will be delivered between June 2008 and September 2008, and is part of a contract announced in July 2006 that covers a five-year delivery period.
A congressional overturn of the Air Force’s controversial selection of an Airbus-based design for its future refueling tanker could ignite “retaliation” from allies in Europe, Northrop Grumman officials say.
