The Dec. 11 launch of the U.S. Air Force’s third X-37B mission took place only after the service acknowledged “acceptable risk” associated with unknowns surrounding the yet-to-be-competed RL10B-2 upper-stage engine anomaly investigation, according to an Air Force Space Command spokeswoman.
As House and Senate negotiations on the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill near their end, the Secretary of Defense, lawmakers and interest groups are undertaking a last-ditch effort to win a compromise on key issues – including the retirement of U.S. Air Force aircraft. On Dec. 11, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made his final appeal to the leaders of the armed services committees to make changes to a long list of issues, aircraft retirements among them, or else he would recommend the president veto the bill.
European Union foreign ministers say they would consider the launch of a satellite by North Korea a “provocative act” that would violate Pyongyang’s U.N. Security Council obligations and merit an international response.
NEW DELHI — Russia has begun delivering upgraded MiG-29 fighters to the Indian air force (IAF), with the first three traveling aboard an An-124 transport aircraft. The aircraft were due to arrive Dec. 11. The IAF has awarded the MiG corporation a $900 million contract to upgrade all of its 69 operational MiG-29s. These upgrades include a new avionics kit, with the N-109 radar being replaced by a Phazatron Zhuk-M radar. The upgrades also include improved beyond-visual-range combat ability and an air-to-air refueling capability.
LONDON — The French army has conducted a series of embarkation trials on a French navy ship to prepare for future joint operations. The trials, which began Dec. 3, saw the French Army Air Corps’ new NHIndustries NH90 Caiman Terre and Eurocopter EC665 Tiger helicopters embark on the French navy’s helo carrier and assault ship Dixmude for the first time. The trials took place off the coast of Hyeres in southern France.
DOWN TO ONE: Sikorsky, teamed with Lockheed Martin, is the only bidder left for the U.S. Air Force’s 112-aircraft, $6.85 billion Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program. Boeing, Bell Boeing, EADS North America and Northrop Grumman, teamed with AgustaWestland, all say they will not bid to replace the Air Force’s Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawks.
The Council of Governors is petitioning the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees to press forward with the creation of a National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force.
LONDON — The consortium providing the U.K. with new air-to-air refueling tankers has taken delivery of its second aircraft and is in the process of applying for its Air Operators Certification (AOC).
The Pentagon is getting closer to starting new missile defense operations at a site in Romania in the middle of the decade with forthcoming work from Lockheed Martin on the launch system.
Investigators have found that a fuel leak was to blame for a malfunction in the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10 upper stage engine during the Oct. 8 launch of a Global Positioning System satellite aboard a Delta IV rocket. Despite diminished thrust in the upper stage, the third Boeing GPS IIF spacecraft made it to orbit in what Air Force Space Command chief Gen. William Shelton called a “diving save.”
JDAMs, PLEASE: The foreign military sales trend continues, as Israel has asked to buy 6,900 Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition tail kits, parts and training, a deal worth about $647 million, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. DSCA notified Congress of the potential sale Dec. 10. Up to this point, Congress had been notified of 58 foreign military sales valued at $62 billion. “The principal contractors will be The Boeing Company in St.
PARIS — Europe’s defense industrial base will have trouble meeting long-term capacity requirements for land-based systems, according to the European Defense Agency (EDA). The European industrial base, while fragmented, is sufficient to meet near-and midterm capability requirements for land-based systems, the Brussels-based agency said in a recent report. In the long term, however, EDA foresees a loss of capacity, “given that the technology, industrial and program areas are not being handled adequately.”
AgustaWestland has lodged an official complaint concerning the Danish Ministry of Defense’s choice of the Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk as its next shipboard maritime helicopter.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, (FA8604-13-D-7951) is being awarded a $29,446,000 requirements contract for Engineering and Technical services for the F-16 and F-22 aircraft. The location of the performance is Bahrain, Chile, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Taiwan and Turkey. The work is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2014. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/PZIEB, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The contract involves Foreign Military Sales.
AIR FORCE Raytheon Co., Sudbury, Mass., (FA8730-13-C-0003) is being awarded a $289,458,942 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, cost reimbursement contract for follow-on sustainment support of the Taiwan Surveillance Radar Program. The location of the performance is Taiwan. The work is expected to be completed by Nov. 8, 2017. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/HBNA, Hanscom AFB, Mass. The contract involves foreign military sales to Taiwan. NAVY
Despite long-term budget restrictions, U.S. officials appear optimistic about development of air-launched missiles to destroy short- and medium-range ballistic missiles during the early launch or boost phases of their flight. Before his October retirement, the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, confirmed that the mission area and an air-launch and kill architecture is of interest to the service.
President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) met over the weekend to discuss averting the so-called fiscal cliff of federal budget cuts and the expiration of tax cuts. No deal yet, and as of last week, the consensus view of defense industry officials was near unanimous: prepare for the leap.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging House and Senate conferees to maintain restrictions on the ability of the Pentagon to contract with Russian weapons exporter Rosoboronexport in the final version of the defense authorization bill.
MV-22 TESTING: The Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office in Amarillo, Texas, has been awarded a $26.5 million contract modification to provide the Naval Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Squadron with on-site test management, flight test engineering, design engineering, and related efforts to support MV-22 flight and ground testing, the Pentagon announced Dec. 10. The work will be performed at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Md., and in Philadelphia and Fort Worth. It is expected to be completed in December 2013.
A recent budget-crafting exercise that included input from “defense community experts” highlights the need and desire to continue to develop military undersea capabilities. The experts say the capability is needed to better cope with anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD), environments, according to the exercises and a subsequent recently released report, “Strategic Choices; Navigating Austerity,” by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA).
