Heavy-lift helicopter specialist Erickson Air-Crane is acquiring operators in the U.S. and Brazil in a move to diversify from its niche in firefighting into a global aviation services business. The acquisition of Oregon-based Evergreen Helicopter (EHI) and Air Amazonia of Brazil for up to $350 million will double Erickson’s revenues and operating earnings. The deals will also take the Portland, Ore.-based company into new commercial and government markets, halving its dependence on seasonal firefighting revenues.
THE PENTAGON — The first-of-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1), the USS Freedom, briefly lost and then regained power March 16 while en route to its first Asian deployment to Singapore, confirms Vice Adm. Richard Hunt, the director of Navy staff and the head of the special LCS Council of service admirals.
SEQUESTRATION SCARE: Across-the-board budget cuts directed by sequestration could cause an increase in the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S., the commander of U.S. Southern Command told the House Armed Services Committee March 20. Last year, the U.S. and other countries helped confiscate 200 metric tons of cocaine before it arrived from South America and Central America on its way north, said Marine Gen. John Kelly. The effort cost the U.S. about $600 million.
The Senate has passed a bill to keep the government running once the current stopgap spending bill expires on March 27. The bill, passed by a vote of 73-26, will fund NASA and the Pentagon at fiscal 2013 levels. That eases the military’s concerns about the effects on force readiness if it were to be funded at 2012 levels for all of fiscal 2013, but does not address $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts imposed by sequestration.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The U.S. Army is spinning up its ability to perform aerial electronic attack (EA) and general electronic warfare (EW) missions, even in the face of budget turmoil, says Army Col. Jim Ekvall, the chief of the service’s EW division. “We need the ability to do aerial EW and electronic attack,” Ekvall said March 19 during the Electronic Warfare Summit hosted by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement.
In its hunt for a squadron of long-endurance, carrier-capable unmanned aircraft, the U.S. Navy is preparing to issue four sole-source contracts this fall for nine months of preliminary design work, and will ultimately choose a single winner for a technology demonstration phase in early 2015. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics are each expected to submit designs for the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) contract.
Efforts to stop funding the development of a tri-national missile defense system that the U.S. has no plans to deploy are part of the down-to-the-wire debate on a spending bill crafted to keep the government running after the current stopgap measure expires March 27.
The FAA says it will identify technical, political, legal and operational methods to protect aviation users from intentional spoofing and jamming of GPS signals in a report to be issued in September. Results of the one-year study, initiated by the FAA in September 2012 and carried out by a government/industry team, are critical to the agency’s planned reliance on GPS as the navigation and surveillance backbone of the next-generation air transportation system (NextGen) program.
India has maintained its position as the world’s leading arms importer for the third year in a row, ahead of China, which moved up a spot as one of the world’s five largest weapons exporters, a Swedish-based research institute says. India replaced China as the world’s leading importer of weapons in 2011 and has retained the spot ever since, accounting for 12% of global arms imports, almost twice as much as China, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) says.
The second U.S. Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV-2), USNS Choctaw County, is progressing at a better pace than the lead ship of its class, the USNS Spearhead (JHSV-1), program officials say. “At this stage, JHSV-2 is more complete than the lead ship, and we are benefitting from JHSV-1’s lessons learned,” says Strategic and Theater Sealift Program Manager Capt. Henry Stevens.
What has been reported by the mainstream press to have been a satellite collision in late January, which allegedly damaged a Russian satellite, never took place, according to a U.S. defense official. Major news outlets reported last week that the Russian BLITS satellite collided with a piece of orbital debris left after China conducted an anti-satellite test using its own defunct Feng Yun 1C satellite as a target in 2007. They quoted experts at the Center for Space Standards & Innovation.
There are growing concerns about how continuing resolutions (CRs) and sequestration will affect the proposed Pacific Pivot plans for the U.S. Navy. Program cuts and delays could disrupt Navy shipbuilding plans to a point that the service will be unable to support its strategy, according to officials in and out of the service. The result, some analysts say, could be a weaker Pacific stance that could embolden the Chinese in the region.
TEL AVIV — Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is looking to Poland as a potential next customer for its new 767 Multi Mission Tanker Transport (MMTT), after making its first sale of the version to Brazil.
ARMY BAE Systems Inc., Nashua, N.H., was awarded a $66,000,015 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of AN/AAR-57 common missile warning systems. The contract is in support of Foreign Military Sales for the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The work will be performed in Nashua, with an estimated completion date of March 6, 2015. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W15P7T-13-C-C108).
SAN JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil — Two years after formally establishing its defense and security unit, Embraer has brought in $1.056 billion in revenue, posting 24% growth over last year. And in the next eight years, the company is setting continually high expectations of double-digit growth, says Luiz Carlos Aguiar, the division’s chief executive officer. The company is continuing its effort to capture Brazilian defense contracts and to establish itself as a systems integrator for countries that do not already have an entrenched industrial base.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Sunnyvale, Calif., (FA8810-13-C-0002) is being awarded a $105,868,182 cost-plus incentive-fee and fixed-price incentive-firm contract for contractor logistics support, legacy sustainment and combined task force support for the Space Based Infrared Systems. The location of the performance is Colorado Springs. The work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2016. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. The contracting activity is SMC/ISK, Los Angeles AFB, Calif.
Boeing conducted the first flight of the new F-15SA version of the Strike Eagle in February, it has been revealed. The first flight of the fly-by-wire fighter bomber took place on Feb. 20 from Boeing’s facility in St. Louis, U.S. Air Force officials said March 13. The aircraft’s development is being led by the U.S. Air Force on behalf of the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), which is ordering 84 new-build F-15SAs, while the country’s existing fleet of F-15S Strike Eagles will be upgraded as part of a $3.453 billion program.
LOCKHEED LEADERSHIP: Larry Lawson is retiring from his position as executive vice president for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics — which oversees the F-35, F-22 and C-130J programs — after only a year in the slot since his predecessor, Ralph Heath, left the company last April. Orlando Carvalho, who has led the F-35 program for the past year, will ascend to overseeing Lockheed’s aircraft manufacturing unit effective April 5. Carvalho’s deputy, Lorraine Martin, will take over as vice president overseeing the $400 billion, tri-service, multinational F-35 effort.
