India's government has chosen Armaris, a joint venture of France's Thales and DCN, as the prime contractor for a technology transfer program under which India will build six conventional Scorpene submarines. Thales, which announced the deal Sept. 13, also will provide assistance to Indian shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Ltd. and supply key subsystems for the Scorpenes' integrated combat systems, including underwater sensors and electronic warfare equipment. The deal is worth nearly EUR 600 million (USD $720 million), to Thales, the company said.
Two competitors for the U.S. Air Force's Combat Search and Rescue-X (CSAR-X) program squared off at dueling press briefings Sept. 14, with the Bell-Boeing CV-22 team emphasizing the leap-ahead nature of its tiltrotor technology and the Boeing HH-47 team stressing the combat experience of its helicopter. The CV-22 can travel twice as fast as a helicopter, providing more time to decide whether and where to deploy the aircraft, Bell-Boeing's Bob Carrese told reporters at the Air Force Association's Air & Space Conference in Washington.
SHIP SUPPORT: Thales said Sept. 12 that it has been awarded a EUR 12 million (USD $18.4 million) contract to maintain and support the French navy frigates Nivose and Floreal. Major work on the Nivose will start in January 2006 and is set to be finished by mid-April. Intermediate work on the Floreal will begin in July 2006. Thales will perform the duties along with fleet management firm V. Ships of Monaco. The 3,000-ton ships are based on Reunion Island in the sourthern Indian Ocean, where they perform patrol and surveillance missions. Each ship has 100 sailors.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) of Minneapolis and Nitrochemie, a Swiss/German propellant manufacturer, have teamed to market Nitrochemie's advanced gun propellants in North America, ATK said Sept. 14. The agreement will "expand ATK's industry-leading portfolio of gun propellants" to include Nitrochemie technology manufactured in Switzerland, ATK said. If the agreement "results in the sales expected," ATK could build some of the propellant at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, Va., which it manages for the U.S. Army.
A recently completed Tactical Aircraft operations study performed for the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin supports the case for boosting procurement of the company's F/A-22 Raptor above the 180 aircraft currently approved by the Pentagon, the company said. Seeking to support the Air Force in its bid to reverse last year's cuts to the program, Lockheed Martin said the study revealed that a force of roughly 250 F/A-22s mixed with the company's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could win certain scenarios at one-third the overall cost of older U.S. fighters.
Rear Adm. Charles Johnston (USN Ret.) has been appointed vice president, developmental systems for the company's Aerospace Group in Patuxent River, Md.
Boeing is reviewing the U.S. Air Force's draft request for proposals for the second increment of the Small Diameter Bomb, and remains confident it will win the contested bid for the 250-pound weapon capable of hitting moving targets in any kind of weather. "We feel extremely well positioned," Darryl Davis, Boeing vice president for global strike products, told reporters during the Air Force Association's Air & Space Conference in Washington on Sept. 13. He said the company's SDB I weapon has recorded a 95% successful drop rate.
Vice Adm. Phillip M. Balisle (USN Ret.) has been appointed senior vice president, maritime strategic plans and programs for the company's Washington operations.
Officials from Washington think tanks agreed Sept. 14 that the Defense Department's ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) should not focus on immediate needs and that allies will be increasingly important over the next two decades, but they disagreed on whether the Air Force's tactical aircraft and the Navy's ships should be sacrificed for newer efforts.
Two weeks before Hurricane Katrina, Northrop Grumman studied a hypothetical scenario in which one of the company's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles was deployed from Edwards Air Force Base in California to assist with disaster relief following a powerful hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast of the United States.
South Korea's defense ministry has proposed an 11.1% annual hike in military spending over the next 10 years as part of a plan to modernize its forces, the Korean Overseas Information Service said Sept. 14. If approved, South Korea would spend a total of KRW 289 trillion ($281 billion) on military expenditures. Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said the goal is to make his country's armed forces "smaller but stronger" for futuristic warfare. The proposal includes the purchase of:
JAMMER: Rockwell Collins said Sept. 14 that it has been awarded a $28 million contract to provide the Rubicon II jammer for the U.S. Marine Corps Communication Emitter Sensing and Attack System (CESAS) and the Mobile Electronic Warfare Support System (MEWSS). Deliveries are set to start in March 2006. The Rubicon II allows the U.S. military to monitor, target and deny enemy communications.
Four Republican senators representing NASA research centers and a Democrat from Washington state are trying to amend the agency's appropriations for the next fiscal year to maintain the same level for aeronautics research and development programs as in fiscal 2005. Sens. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), George Allen (R-Va.), John Warner (R-Va.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have proposed an amendment to the FY '06 spending bill covering NASA that would earmark $906.2 million for aeronautics R&D out of NASA's budget.
