U.S. Navy officials estimate they will save $2.5 billion through Fiscal 2011 by implementing corporate business practices in managing aviation programs, allowing them to buy more aircraft than anticipated and to achieve improved readiness of the airplanes in the fleet.
Regarding your Oct. 2 editorial, more than a decade ago the Airbus Military A400M mock-up was previewed at the Farnborough air show. As a Lockheed Martin executive then, I told a group of European aerospace writers it was "the wrong airplane, for the wrong mission, at the wrong time."
Flags of Our Fathers Dreamworks Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures Directed by Clint Eastwood War heroes are associated with powerful terms like courage, integrity, selflessness and actions that go above-and-beyond the call of duty. But other words--chance, luck of the draw, and right place, right time--also apply. In "Flags of our Fathers," a new movie based on James Bradley's book of the same title, director Clint Eastwood portrays both quintessential battlefield heroes and reluctant, public-defined war heroes.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Douglas Barrie (London), Robert Wall (Paris)
An emerging arena for new competition in the defense industry will involve the melding of airframes and what they traditionally have carried internally. The debate about whether platforms or payloads are more important will soon shift fundamentally as systems--particularly sensors, communications and weaponry as they merge into one--move to the outside of platforms and become their skins. Moreover, there are moves afoot to integrate the two more closely, even on more traditional designs.
Eumetsat member states have served notice that they will not continue providing Meteosat forecasting data for the Indian Ocean region beyond 2008. The service is provided to compensate for the loss of a Russian Elektra spacecraft and lack of a data- sharing agreement with India. Russian officials say a new Elektra is to be launched next year.
The Fire Scout unmanned rotorcraft could be ready to provide intelligence to troops in Iraq ahead of schedule in 2008, but industry and government officials are instead weighing a delay to fielding the four-bladed system by 25 months.
The British Defense Ministry has three primary areas of interest in conformal antenna radar development: aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and guided-weapons. The ministry, for example, is funding technology research into conformal radar designs suitable for comparatively small, unmanned aerial vehicles. British defense technology developer Qinetiq is carrying out the work.
There was little surprise on Wall Street when Michael T. Strianese was named president and CEO of L-3 Communications last week. The 50-year-old veteran finance executive played a part in founding the company in 1997 and had run it on an interim basis after L-3's larger-than-life CEO, Frank C. Lanza, died (AW&ST June 12, p. 30). In an interview with AW&ST Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo, Strianese outlined his plans for a company that has grown to more than 62,000 employees and $12.4 billion in annual revenues--and how his style will differ from Lanza's.
Active electronically scanned arrays are being developed that can serve as radar, directed-energy weapons and communications data links, possibly all at the same time (see p. 46). They also are being designed to assume the shape of the platform that carries them. On a large airship, these arrays can cover extensive flat areas and produce radar images of great detail. On a small stealthy, missile-sized vehicle, the antenna could become skin and aid in penetrating enemy air defenses to deliver a destructive spike of energy to enemy electronics.
In parallel with launching the A350 and fixing the A380, EADS and Airbus officials are busy sorting out other key product portfolio elements, with changes looming for the A400M military transport and a timeline emerging for the replacement of the A320 narrow-body family.
Your Oct. 2 editorial (p. 74) states: "When an AW&ST pilot flew the A380 recently, the flight validated with certainty one important point about the airplane: It is a technical success." Many in the industry were taught that technical success must include many more facets than a good pilot interface and flying qualities. To state just a few: performance and operating cost as promised, reliability, environmental impact, flexibility, passenger appeal, long life and, most importantly, safety.
General Electric is ready to begin initial work on the CT7-engine program for the AgustaWestland/Lockheed Martin VH-71 Marine One presidential helicopter, now that GE had opened a dedicated engine works at its Lynn, Mass., factory.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has declined protests from MD Helicopters and AgustaWestland, the losing bidders to the Army's award to EADS North America for helicopters. The company has continued work on its EC145-based UH-72As during the protest period, and the first of 322 Light Utility helos will be delivered to the Army next month. Life-cycle cost is estimated at $3 billion.
Israel Military Industries is close to landing initial orders for a ship-launched version of its Delilah air-launched cruise missile, a sign of growing demand for littoral combat weapon systems, according to the company.
The shift in aircraft design toward stealthy, radar-scattering structures is pushing the communications antenna industry to continue advancing designs of conformal antennas, which keep platforms disguised while providing wide coverage. Applications are now being developed and fielded for the Pentagon's Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (Amraam), F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), Navy ships and even ground vehicles used by the Marine Corps.
French defense ministry officials have hinted to their Indian counterparts they would consider making an offer to sell about 20 Dassault Aviation Rafale fighters to provide an inventory bridge as New Delhi considers its larger fighter requirements and Pakistan stands to receive F-16 Block 50s.
Also, the Italian air force has opened its first integrated air traffic control center simulator in Practica di Mare. The facility will be used to qualify military air traffic controllers, as well as to train foreign and civilian controllers under a fee-for-service arrangement. The simulator was built by Selex Sistemi Integrati in cooperation with Vitrociset.
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways says its takeover of regional carrier Dragonair will have an immediate payoff for passengers by reducing connection times. Cathay, which held a minority stake in Dragonair, has taken 100% ownership of it in a deal that also includes cross-shareholding with Beijing-based Air China. Cathay says the two carriers have more closely coordinated their schedules so that with the start of the winter schedule, Oct. 29, passengers will encounter only a 50-min. "minimum connecting time" between flights instead of 1 hr.
Air One has taken delivery of the first of 40 Airbus A320s it has ordered. The aircraft are arranged in a two-class configuration with 159 seats. CFM International is the engine provider, with the CFM56-B6/P engines. Air One intends use Airbus single-aisles to replace its entire 737 fleet, which currently stands at 31 aircraft. The carrier also operates five Bombardier CRJ900s in regional operations. Projected delivery rates for the Air One A320s call for one aircraft to be handed over each month, starting in February.
The Italian government, increasingly concerned about Alitalia's long-term viability, has told carrier management to find partners to help it emerge from its financial morass. Additionally, Rome has approved a revised industrial plan, for 2007-09, prepared by the airline's board, affirming its goal to make Alitalia an efficient network carrier. There's no immediate financial risk to the airline, even at its current red ink status, with available funds expected to keep it solvent for about a year.
Saturn, with its ring system spanning 621,000 mi., is imaged from the NASA Cassini orbiter flying 1.3 million mi. above the planet as it eclipsed the Sun. Earth is visible (arrow) nearly 1 billion mi. away. For scale, the width of the entire Saturn ring system is 2.5 times greater than the distance from Earth to the Moon. A ray of sunlight refracted by Saturn's atmosphere peeks under the 121,000-mi.-dia. planet at bottom left.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England conducted yet another high-level meeting late last week to chart a course for the $276-billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The secretaries and chiefs of staff of the Air Force and Navy and the commandant of the Marine Corps were summoned to attend, as were a handful of assistant and undersecretaries of defense. This followed an England session with the Pentagon's Cost Analysis Improvement Group and a special team he assembled to analyze the impacts of congressional cuts for Fiscal 2007.
