The U.K.’s Royal Air Force (RAF) is publicly highlighting its need for a new trainer aircraft while the government continues to delay a decision. At last week’s Aero India airshow, Kevin Marsh, the RAF wing commander for the OC IV squadron, said the RAF’s Shorts Tucano trainer aircraft needs to be replaced because it does not “have a head-up display and mission system.”
For an idea of where intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance could be headed in the future, a good place to start is the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which prides itself in looking well beyond even the most far-sighted of its service customers.
Buoyed by the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, U.S. combat ships have risen in the ranks of U.S. Navy and overall Pentagon expenses, according to an exclusive Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis.
NEW DELHI — The Finmeccanica bribery scandal has prompted the Indian government to defer a decision on the much-awaited $1.5 billion purchase of 197 light utility helicopters for its military.
Government offices may remain open if government-wide budget cuts take effect on March 1, but if sequestration is allowed to take effect it will have serious economic consequences, the U.S. government controller told senators Feb. 14. “I do not think it’s prudent at all to think that because the lights do not shut down across government on March 1 that we can cross that precipice and then pull back later,” Daniel Werfel, controller of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told the Senate Appropriations Committee.
BEIJING — A South Korean defense ministry think tank is publicly opposing development of the proposed KF-X indigenous fighter. The Korea Institute for Defense Analysis told a public meeting that the country is not technologically equipped to develop the aircraft, that the project is economically unviable and that the KF-X would not be a successful export product.
To keep operations going through the continuing resolution (CR) and tighter budgetary environment, the U.S. Marine Corps has already had to shift funds and the service will likely have to cut some of its mainstay deployments if sequestration hits, according to Gen. James Amos, Marine Corps commandant. Marines stand at the highest possible state of readiness and training, Amos said Feb. 14 during a speech sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. “But I’m paying for that by eating my seed corn from other accounts,” Amos says.
NEW DELHI — The Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile joint venture will expand this year into perhaps its toughest domain, with the company announcing it is nearly ready to conduct the first test of the BrahMos-A, an air-launched version of the weapon.
NEW DELHI — France is working to ensure that no ripple effect of the Finmeccanica bribery scandal disrupts the long-anticipated contract to supply 126 Dassault Rafale fighters to the Indian air force. “We will do nothing contrary to the principles that we stand for and rules of trade that are based on the principles of competitiveness and fairness,” says French President Francois Hollande, during his two-day visit to India, in which he discussed the estimated $18 billion fighter aircraft deal with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
ALLIED PAIN: Pentagon programs are not the only weapon systems set to see budget cuts under the so-called sequestration automatic reductions taking effect March 1. Military aid for up to about 150 allies around the world would face a $551.6 million cut, according to House Appropriations Committee Democrats. Within the total, sequestration would cut foreign military financing by $317 million. Affected would be aid to Israeli defense technology efforts, anti-cartel efforts in Mexico, counternarcotics border operations and counterterrorism ops around the world.
LONDON — Switzerland is to disband its Patrouille Suisse aerobatic team in 2016 as part of the planned retirement of the F-5 Tiger fighter from the country’s air arm. The decision will end the 50-year-long career of the team, which currently flies six brightly painted red and white Northrop F-5 Tigers. The plans emerged during a committee hearing discussing the country’s future purchase of the Saab Gripen. Switzerland plans to buy 22 Gripens to replace the F-5.
The U.S. Navy and other military services should rely on existing equipment, systems and weapons rather than trying to develop new ones to handle “surprise capabilities” of adversaries, says a recent National Research Council (NRC) study. Navy and other Pentagon acquisitions simply take too long and the process is too cumbersome to field or deploy new capabilities in time to meet unforeseen or other “surprise” threats, according to the interim report, “Capability Surprise for U.S. Naval Forces,” released this month.
I.T. FLATLINES: Federal information technology consultancy Deltek says the U.S. government IT services market should remain nearly unchanged through 2017. Washington’s spending on vendor-furnished IT services will decrease from $60.9 billion in 2012 to $60.4 billion in that time. “Agencies continue to consolidate their data centers and will require continued contractor support to converge their infrastructure,” says Deltek analyst Angie Petty.
While the U.S. Navy touts the benefits of “surrogate” testing for the survivability of its warships, the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) still wants more rigorous testing. The DOT&E’s latest annual report highlights concerns about the next-generation CVN-78 Gerald Ford aircraft carrier program, but the debate is much larger and touches most major developmental efforts. The services and contractors want to rely more on component or virtual testing while DOT&E wants more realistic testing scenarios.
NEW DELHI and LONDON — The Indian defense ministry has threatened to carry out the “strongest action” if Finmeccanica acted corruptly in the sale of helicopters to the Indian air force (IAF). The move follows the arrest in Italy of Finmeccanica chairman and CEO Giuseppe Orsi on Feb. 12 by investigators exploring whether AgustaWestland paid kickbacks worth around €50 million ($67 million) to secure the sale of 12 AW101 VIP helicopters to the IAF in 2010, when Orsi was in charge of the AgustaWestland division.
PARIS — U.K. Defense Minister Philip Hammond says Britain will continue its membership in the European Defense Agency (EDA) through 2013, when the ministry will again reconsider support for the Brussels-based military procurement organization.
LONDON — The French air force has conducted an urgent trial to ensure its combat aircraft are able to use Italian air force KC-767 aerial refueling tankers. The trials, set up in response to France’s Operation Serval in Mali, mean that French combat aircraft will be able to use the Boeing KC-767 tanker aircraft, which the Italian government has offered to France for the ongoing operation.
PARIS — Astrium, the space division of EADS, will begin development of Europe’s first digital military ultrafast broadband satellite communications network under a roughly €40 million ($52 million) contract awarded by French defense procurement agency DGA.
NEW DELHI — India is developing the sixth in its series of Agni ballistic missiles that will be capable of carrying multiple warheads. “While the Agni-V is [a] major strategic defense weapon, the Agni-VI will be a force multiplier as it will have multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle [MIRV] capability,” says Defense and Research Development Organization (DRDO) chief V.K. Saraswat.
NEW DELHI — Europe’s MBDA is pitching its Meteor air-to-air missile to India as a weapon for its planned fleet of 126 Rafale fighters. “This is ideal for the Rafale,” an MBDA official tells Aviation Week. “It’s already part of the French fighter. India will just need to plug [it] in.”
It’s getting too late in the fiscal year for the Pentagon to ease the disruptive effects of sequestration, even if it is given flexibility in allocating cuts, according to top defense officials. “We need the cloud of sequester and uncertainty dispelled,” acquisition chief Ashton Carter told the House Armed Services Committee Feb. 13. If uncertainty is merely pushed back, “it’s still pretty harmful,” he says.
