Dozens of women are filling senior management positions across aerospace and defense, changing the face of an industry not known for diversity. Another glass ceiling will shatter on Jan. 1, when Marillyn Hewson (right) becomes CEO of Lockheed Martin and Phebe Novakovic fills the top spot at General Dynamics.
In 2013, Russia again plans to increase its defense expenditures. The growth of the defense budget will continue in 2014 and 2015, with the aim of completing the massive rearmament of the forces started a few years ago.
Displays are getting personal. As soldiers join the network they need displays, and today's ruggedized laptops are heavy, power-hungry and breakable. The push is on to field lightweight, flexible displays that can be worn on the wrist or integrated into clothing or protective eyewear. The U.S. Army is testing wrist displays, and the U.S. Air Force kneepad touchscreens, produced by L-3 Display Systems using unbreakable plastic-backed organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology from Universal Displays. These displays are small—only 4.3-in.
It has been called the most significant advance in jet engines since the turbofan: development of variable-cycle “third stream” engines with 25% lower specific fuel consumption than today's fighter powerplants. General Electric and Rolls-Royce will ground-test demonstrator engines in 2013, and GE and Pratt & Whitney are under contract to mature the technology and test new adaptive-fan engine designs in 2016. In addition to the high-pressure core and low-pressure bypass streams of a conventional turbofan, these variable-bypass engines have a third, outer flowpath.
Nothing reveals the political nature of this year's debate over across-the-board budget cuts as much as the dramatic change of discourse in the weeks leading to the deadline for preventing them. After a year of hearings, press conferences and road shows clamoring for a stop to sequestration, lawmakers and the Obama administration are now met with the deadline. Late last week, they appeared to have rationalized missing it.
The bifurcation of the business jet market is expected to continue in 2013, with strong demand for larger and pricier jets and sluggish sales of small and mid-sized aircraft. A Chinese company's failed bid in 2012 to acquire bankrupt Hawker Beechcraft is unlikely to slow Beijing's bid to become a significant player in the market.
While privacy concerns bedevil efforts to integrate unmanned aircraft into U.S. national airspace, police departments across the country are pushing ahead with plans to field small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS) operating under existing rules. The vehicle of choice appears to be a miniature rotorcraft, providing the ease of operation that comes with vertical-takeoff-and-landing and the ability to hover and stare. Canada's Draganfly Innovations has led development of the public-safety market with its 4.5-lb.
Italy's defense budget is on the upswing again after deep cuts in 2012. However, the defense minister, the retired Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, has received a preliminary green light for a major restructuring and deep cuts to all three of the armed forces. The plan is subject to future political decisions, but appears to be unavoidable.
Defense budget negotiations in Israel are on ice until after the Jan. 22 elections. However, the costs of Operation Pillar of Defense—aimed at eliminating the rocket threat from Hamas—will complicate an already difficult situation.
It's a classic chicken or egg dilemma. Small satellites are not being built because there is no cheap way to launch them, and small launchers are not being built because there are no satellites to launch on them. So the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is attacking the problem from both directions simultaneously, with dual programs to develop $500,000 imaging satellites of less than 100 lb. and air-launched boosters to place them in low Earth orbit for $1 million a flight.
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have met two major milestones for the F-35 this year just under the wire—establishing a contract for the next production lot that targets an incremental cost decrease and laying the foundation to start training pilots in January. Both are major steps forward for the $400 billion Joint Strike Fighter program managed by Lockheed Martin. But both came only after months of wrangling.
Lawmakers are constantly caught between balancing the needs of the federal government while staying true to the voters at home. Such is the case in this year's fight to maintain the Air National Guard (ANG) and Reserve, which lends a hand to the active duty military while also standing ready to serve all 50 states. Congress balked at the Air Force's initial proposal to cut 287 aircraft and 11,600 personnel, ordering a freeze on retiring or transferring aircraft.
Teeing up an issue for Congress in 2013, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), have introduced a bill that would push the FAA to begin setting privacy rules for the use of UAVs in civilian airspace. UAVs can carry “infrared thermal imagers, radar and wireless network 'sniffers,' with the capability to collect sensitive detailed information while operating in the skies above,” according to Markey. As such, he is seeking to regulate their use.
KERRY NOMINATED: On Dec. 21 President Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the son of a diplomat, to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was widely anticipated to receive the nomination. Obama was also expected to name former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as Defense Secretary. That did not happen, as opposition in the Senate and in wider Washington continued over Hagel’s past impolitic comments.
A year-end deadline for the Air Force and Navy to disclose the target initial operational capability (IOC) dates for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was extended until June 1, 2013, in the last days of congressional conference negotiations over the 2013 defense budget. Programs are considered to have reached the benchmark once they complete initial operational test and evaluation.
Despite spending the last year railing against across-the-board budget cuts, many in the Republican Party are now ready to accept them—at least in the short term. Before the presidential election, sequestration had been front and center for Republicans, particularly those on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC).
Boeing and Cassidian have been shortlisted in a competition to provide an off-the-shelf shipborne unmanned aerial system to assist the U.K. Royal Navy in its anti-piracy missions.
The U.K. could put maritime patrol back on the agenda, more than two years after the capability was lost through the cancellation of the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 program. Findings of a study carried out by the House of Commons's Defense Committee inquiry into future maritime surveillance will be handed to the Military Capability Board in April and options that “merit further investigation” will be examined prior to the next Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR), due to be carried out by the Ministry of Defense in 2015.
U.S. lawmakers representing helicopter communities are lauding a provision in the final 2013 defense authorization measure they say prohibits the Pentagon from entering new contracts with Rosoboronexport, the Russian arms provider.
LONDON — The Sultanate of Oman has finally signed a long-awaited contract to buy 12 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft. The deal, signed in Oman on Dec. 21, also includes eight Hawk jet trainers and in-service support. In all, the deal is worth £2.5 billion ($4.06 billion). Manufacturing of the aircraft is due to begin in 2014, with first deliveries in 2017. The new Typhoons will replace Oman’s aging fleet of Sepecat Jaguars, while the new Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) are likely to replace the fleet of Hawk 100s used for training.
After more than a year-long delay, the U.S. Air Force has begun training its instructor pilots for the F-35 at Eglin AFB, Fla., joining its Marine Corps colleagues who have already started producing pilots. Gen. Edward Rice, who heads the Air Education and Training Center, gave the long-awaited nod to begin pilot training during a visit last week to the base, where the first F-35 schoolhouse has been established.
Five years ago, the idea of easing export controls on commercial satellites was politically unthinkable. That mindset has changed during the last half-decade, as the idea that those restrictions are harming both national security and the U.S. industrial base has gradually gained traction. And now, during a year in which the U.S. Congress barely passed even routine bills, lawmakers came together to shed long-standing restrictions on the export of commercial satellites.
