I was glad to note in “Risk Assessment“ (AW&ST April 26, p. 28) that someone is keeping track of the risk the U.S. will incur by making the defense cuts proposed by this administration. As the article concisely explained, we have officially moved from a low to moderate “acceptable risk” to a moderate one in being able to defend U.S. controlled airspace. This change to our security is what explains how this drawdown is being rationalized.
The U.S. Army is undertaking a “comprehensive” review of its acquisition processes and people, and will include recently mandated congressional reforms and lessons-learned from eight years of counterinsurgency wars. The Army review is taking place in parallel with a Pentagon-led examination of acquisition issues, and will draw upon the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and the Gansler Commission Report on expeditionary contracting. The Army assessment will be conducted by an “independent” panel co-chaired by Gil Decker, a former Army acquisition executive, and Gen.
The FAA has awarded another round of NextGen contracts worth more than $4.3 billion over 10 years, aimed at demonstrating concepts such as four-dimensional air traffic control and advanced weather systems. If options are exercised, Boeing will receive $1.7 billion, General Dynamics $1.2 billion and ITT $1.4 billion. The base contracts are for five years, with two options to extend. Each company will receive specific task orders. These agreements are part of the System Engineering 2020 (SE2020) effort, which has a spending ceiling of $7 billion.
With the completion of the STS-132 mission of Atlantis, the shutdown of the space shuttle program spreads from manufacturing facilities to the vehicle processing hub here.
The FAA last week proposed a rule generally prohibiting U.S. civil flight operations below 16,000 ft. in Afghanistan, unless authorized by the agency. Affected by the rule would be U.S. air carriers, holders of the U.S. airman certificate and operators of U.S.-registered aircraft, with exceptions. According to the FAA, increased insurgent activity prompted the proposed rulemaking. The agency notes there have been several events of aircraft being hit by small-arms fire, although no U.S. aircraft has been targeted.
In a year when fears of a financial meltdown gripped the world, the global aerospace and defense (A&D) industry held its own. Suppliers fretted about production cuts at Boeing and Airbus that never came to be; instead, the two companies delivered a record 979 aircraft. Concerns that a new Democratic president would slash U.S. defense spending proved overblown as Barack Obama increased the Pentagon’s budget and expanded the U.S. military’s presence in Afghanistan.
Japan’s Akatsuki Venus atmospheric probe is en route to its target planet following separation from its H-IIA F17 rocket, captured 27 min. after launch May 21 local time from the Tanegashima Space Center. Riding piggyback was the Ikaros solar-sail experiment. Controllers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have since checked out both spacecraft and found them in good shape for their missions. Akatsuki, also known as Planet-C and the Venus Climate Orbiter, is scheduled to reach Venus in December for the start of a nominal two-year orbital mission.
This year’s rankings of publicly traded aerospace and defense contractors are the result of a composite scoring of four equally weighted performance categories that place significant emphasis on operating excellence. Category weightings are based on results of two surveys conducted by Aviation Week with senior management of companies generating annual revenues greater than $1 billion.
Frances Fiorino (Washington), Neelam Mathews (New Delhi)
The Air India Express accident that took the lives of 158 people raises concerns about Indian airlines and underlines the need to make runways safer as traffic grows in fast-developing aviation regions.
The caption that appeared with the photo on pages 58-59 of the May 24 issue incorrectly identified the aircraft. It is a U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle.
Steven L. Enewold (see photo) has been named vice president for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Unmanned Aircraft System for the Northrop Grumman Corp. , Bethpage, N.Y. He was vice president/deputy integrated product team leader for the high-altitude long-endurance systems market segment.
European Space Agency controllers have finished commissioning the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, following a three-day mission review in Avila, Spain. The review determined that all instruments on SMOS, which was launched late last year along with the Proba 2 technology satellite, are performing nominally. The third in ESA’s Earth Explorer science missions, SMOS is equipped with an L-band interferometric radiometer that can determine temperatures on the basis of surface brightness.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Douglas Barrie (London)
With military tensions growing in East Asia, the U.S. is sending F-22s and F-15s equipped with advanced, long-range radars to Okinawa. The radars are designed for air-launched cruise and ballistic missile defense, U.S. Air Force and aerospace industry officials tell Aviation Week.
Like the customers to whom they supply products and services, aerospace and defense companies in recent years have had to adapt to a more difficult operating environment. For the most part, they have done remarkably well—so much so that exaggerated swings in business cycles may no longer define the industry. Only time will tell, of course, but evidence from Aviation Week’s 15th annual Top-Performing Companies (TPC) study surely points in that direction.
The global appetite for heavy-lift helicopters is boosting the prospects for Russia’s commercial rotorcraft industry and providing energy to several new projects.
Scott Thompson (McLean, Va. ), James W. Thomas (McLean, Va.)
The aerospace and defense industry managed to turn in a respectable performance in 2009, despite a severe global recession. Revenues increased by 2%, reaching a record. Deliveries of large commercial aircraft hit an all-time high of 979, despite concerns about available financing. Furthermore, defense spending remained stable and all the large defense primes except EADS reported revenue increases.
An Airbus-funded study estimates that the global gross domestic product has been cut by $5 billion because of the impact of volcanic ash-related airspace restrictions, of which $2.2 billion was incurred in the aviation sector. Losses of $4.7 billion reflect the GDP impact from the one-week shutdown of airspace in Europe in April. Another approximately $235 million in losses were incurred during airspace disruptions in May. Europe, where air transport was hit most severely, saw a loss of $2.6 billion.
India is carrying out a feasibility study into two designs of unmanned combat air vehicles as part of what is known as the Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft program. The Aeronautical Development Establishment and Aeronautical Development Agency are the two state-owned research institutes involved in the program. The planned technology demonstrator for the program is sometimes referred to as the Indian Unmanned Strike Aircraft Program.
Preparations to test the James Webb Space Telescope’s flight hardware are prompting an extensive remake of the giant thermal vacuum chamber that was so important in the Apollo era that it is registered as a national landmark.
