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.
LONDON — AirTanker, the consortium providing the U.K. with new aerial refueling tanker aircraft, has secured its Civil Aviation Authority Air Operating Certificate (AOC) and taken delivery of its third aircraft. The organization received the Airbus A330 Voyager tanker on Dec. 19 from Cobham in Bournemouth, which had converted the A330 into the tanker configuration. The arrival now means AirTanker has three aircraft — two tankers and a single standard A330 that is being used for transport or trooping flights.
With negotiations over the nation’s debt and deficit ongoing, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a memo on the matter of across-the-board spending cuts due to take place at the start of the new year that should relieve some anxiety among department personnel. He issued guidance to the Pentagon’s civilian workforce reminding them that sequestration will not be a government shutdown and that workers should still report for duty on Jan. 3.
At company facilities in Seattle, Boeing has made an on-site delivery of the first P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the Indian navy. “India will receive this aircraft and two more of its eight contracted P-8Is in 2013. The program is progressing on schedule as Boeing assembles the fourth and fifth P-8Is,” the company said in a statement Dec. 20.
MOSCOW — The revenue of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation in 2012 is expected to reach 180 billion rubles (about $5.8 billion), the corporation’s CEO Mikhail Pogosyan said Dec. 20. By the end of the year UAC will have delivered 20 commercial aircraft and 35 military aircraft for the Russian Defense Ministry. For the first time in UAC history, deliveries to the Russian military will outnumber exported combat aircraft, Pogosyan said.
A system developed to provide precise positioning in areas denied signals from navigation satellites is to be deployed to enable testing of military GPS receiver performance during jamming. The ground-based non-GPS positioning system from Locata is also being looked at as a backup at critical national infrastructure sites that use GPS for precise timing, such as mobile communications, electronic commerce and power-grid synchronization.
LONDON — The U.K. Ministry of Defense has signed a £258 million ($419 million) contract for support of its Sea King fleet in its final years of operation. The deal with AgustaWestland secures a three-year extension to the Sea King Integrated Operational Support (SKIOS) contract that covers technical and maintenance support for the 90-strong fleet of Sea Kings operated by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
ANOTHER TRY: The U.S. Air Force is planning to use the RL10B-2 engine for a late February flight of the fifth Wideband Global Satcom satellite on a Delta IV rocket, according to Dave Madden, who directs the Air Force’s military satellite communications system program office. The Delta IV, which uses the RL10B-2 to power the upper stage, malfunctioned during an Oct. 8 GPS IIF launch and has not flown since. Air Force officials have yet to find a root cause for the low-thrust anomaly.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), fearing that the FAA is failing to address privacy concerns involving unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), is taking steps to mandate privacy protections and public transparency as the agency begins to facilitate the introduction of UAS into the national airspace system. Markey on Dec. 18 introduced a bill, H.R.6676, the Drone Aircraft Privacy Transparency Act, calling for disclosure about the use of UAS and for warrant requirements for law enforcement use.
One of the toughest aspects of making laws is 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, the force lending a hand to the active duty military while serving all 50 states.
LONDON — NHIndustries has set a trio of milestones as it steps up deliveries of the land-based and naval versions of the NH90 helicopter. NHIndustries — the joint venture of AgustaWestland, Eurocopter and Fokker — is set to deliver the first Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) variant to the Belgian Air Component on Dec. 21 following the first flight of the aircraft on Sept. 18. On the same day, the consortium will also deliver the first NH90 in the “Step B” NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH) configuration to the French navy.
ISTRES, France — French defense procurement agency DGA is in talks with the U.S. Air Force to acquire the General Atomics-built MQ-9 Reaper as a possible interim solution to its medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV requirement. Speaking to reporters here Dec. 19, DGA chief Laurent Collet-Billon said he is discussing the option of purchasing the drones through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
BEIJING — Selection of an aircraft for South Korea’s F-X fighter Phase 3 competition will not be made until the first half of next year. The country’s Defense Industry Committee, chaired by the defense minister, says negotiations are stuck on the point of offsets and other conditions, rather than price. The decision to order heavy attack helicopters, almost certainly Boeing AH-64 Apaches, has also been deferred until the first half of 2013.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), fearing FAA is failing to address privacy concerns involving UAVs, is taking steps to mandate privacy protections and public transparency as the agency begins to facilitate the introduction of UAVs into the national airspace system. Markey on Dec. 18 introduced a bill, H.R.6676, the Drone Aircraft Privacy Transparency Act, calling for disclosure about the use of UAVs and for warrant requirements for law enforcement use.
Doubts still hang over the military utility of small satellites, holding back progress on low-cost, quick-reaction systems that could be launched at short notice to fill gaps in space coverage. To prove their viability, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has begun a program to demonstrate that small satellites produced and launched on demand can provide imagery on request directly to individual soldiers.
MOVING UP: Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) will lead the Senate Appropriations Committee, replacing Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat who died earlier this week of respiratory complications. She picks up the gavel after Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who was next in line in terms of seniority, opted to remain the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
LONDON — Officials at the U.K. Ministry of Defense are to assess how to meet the country’s future maritime patrol needs following the cancellation of the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft program in 2010. Findings of a study carried out by the House of Commons’ Defense Committee inquiry into maritime surveillance will be handed to the Military Capability Board (MCB) in April, and options that “merit further investigation” will be examined prior to the next Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) due to take place in 2015.
