The Texas-based Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office received contract modifications at the end of December worth about $1.5 billion for V-22 Osprey work. One modification, worth about $1.4 billion, was for the V-22 lot 17 advance acquisition contract for 17 fiscal 2013 Ospreys for the U.S. Marine Corps and four fiscal 2013 CV-22 aircraft for the Air Force.
SAN DIEGO — There is little doubt about the U.S. Navy’s intentions to improve the looks and operations of its first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom – and the ship’s rising cost is reflecting that push. The Navy estimates the cost of the post-shakedown availability (PSA) overhaul at about $42 million, which includes the replacement or modification of piping, compressor and other vital systems on the ship as a result of lessons learned during trials and other mission-related operations.
LONDON — Airbus Military has begun flight tests of new winglets for its C295 twin-engine transport aircraft. According to the company, the winglets are just one in a series of developments under way on the aircraft and are designed to improve takeoff, climb and cruise performance.
NEW DELHI — The much-awaited test launch of the air version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile has been further delayed and now India hopes to undertake the drop trials by December 2013. India had planned to conduct the test launch by December 2012. The development of the missile is already over three years behind schedule.
European government bickering scuttled a mega-merger of EADS and BAE Systems, and the Pentagon continues to hold firm against further consolidation among its top contractors. But consolidation amid second- and third-tier contractors is likely to accelerate as defense spending heads down in the U.S. and Europe.
Unmanned vessels are about to take a leap in capability, on the surface and beneath. The desire for persistent sensing is driving the need to develop fully autonomous, long-duration vehicles that can covertly patrol coastal waters or overtly follow submerged submarines. The U.S. Office of Naval Research plans to build prototypes of the Large-Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) to address the autonomy, sensing and energy challenges of a vessel able to operate independently for months.
Germany plans a 2013 defense budget of about €33.3 billion ($43.5 billion), a €1.4-billion increase from 2012. Military pay raises will account for most of this increase. The 2013 budget includes funding for these raises, to make it more attractive to serve in the all-volunteer Bundeswehr. Personnel strength will be reduced to 196,200 soldiers in 2013, on the way to a planned maximum of 185,000. These cuts are expected to reduce the defense budget to €33 billion in 2014, and to €32.5 billion in 2015 and again in 2016.
Graham Warwick (Washington), Larry Dickerson (Forecast International)
As war winds down and the focus shifts from Afghanistan to China, missile manufacturers will see a move away from today's heavy use of precision air-to-surface weapons toward an emphasis on long-range anti-ship and strike systems. Influenced by that trend, the world missile-systems market will see a steady increase in value over the next five years, but a drop in deliveries as production shifts to more expensive weapons. More than 194,000 missiles of all types are forecast for production between 2013 and 2017, valued at $61.9 billion.
Engine manufacturers will be busy in 2013 as testing accelerates on the latest commercial turbofans and work advances on the next generation of military powerplants. Production will rise, but more significantly on the commercial side than the military. The pace is highest at CFM and Pratt & Whitney as they battle for the single-aisle airliner market with the Leap-1 and PW1000G, respectively. While the 2011 and 2012 order levels are unlikely to be sustained in 2013, it will see vital tests for both engines.
A “wait-and-see” banner flies over France's 2013 defense budget, which, like all others for EU defense ministries', has to contract to meet the government's goal of bringing the country's public debt down to 3% of GDP from the current 5.2%.
The pace of advance in China's military modernization has reached the point where the question is more one of what surprises will be sprung on the world in 2013, rather than whether there will be any. The first-ever flight operations from a Chinese aircraft carrier took place in November, with what was by national standards a blaze of publicity. In September, outgoing Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao personally officiated at the carrier's commissioning.
Key gains by NATO allies in the increasingly important military discipline of close air support (CAS) may be at risk, because equipment and budgetary decisions at national levels contradict alliance standards for training forward air controllers (FACs).
Routine aircraft-like spaceflight operations could begin in 2013, with Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace flying to the edge of atmosphere, but fully reusable air-breathing space access remains a dream. A crucial step forward could be tests of an air-breathing rocket engine component now underway in the U.K.
NASA Space Launch System (SLS) advocate Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) is leaving Capitol Hill, but the program should get a boost by meeting an early test. An engineering board has cleared the first element of the heavy-lift rocket for preliminary manufacturing, keeping the program on track for a first flight with the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle in 2017.
North Korea's successful launch of a satellite in December after 14 years of attempts put the hermit kingdom one step closer toward deploying an intercontinental ballistic missile. And Iran's nuclear weapons program—and the threat of an Israeli attack to cripple it—will keep tensions simmering in the Middle East.
Weeks after North Korea's successful rocket launch, South Korea may take steps to beef up its surveillance capabilities. On Dec. 21, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency formally notified Congress that South Korea has proposed buying four RQ-4 Block-30 Global Hawks for up to $1.2 billion. The sale of Northrop Grumman's high-altitude, long-endurance UAV would help South Korea assume the lead in intelligence gathering as the U.S. plans to dissolve the Combined Forces Command in 2015, notes the agency.
Bombardier's future as a major player in the passenger jet business could rest on its new CSeries aircraft. The first flight has been delayed from December until as late as next June, and a key Chinese fuselage supplier fell down on the job. In 2013, Bombardier needs the CSeries to fly and customers to buy. Chinese
NASA wants $800 million in fiscal 2013 for its program to outsource the transport of crews to and from space, and says if it does not get the funding first commercial flights to the International Space Station will slip to 2018. With station funding set to expire in 2020, that could be a problem.
