While the U.S. Marine Corps is drawing down its force levels to reflect the nation’s pullback from overseas military operations, the service also is shifting focus to more covert or cyber-based operations, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says. “As the Marine Corps is getting smaller, there are two areas in which it is bigger,” Mabus said Oct. 9 during a luncheon hosted by the National Aeronautic Association. “One is special operations and the other is cyber.”
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) forecasts sales of about 100 civil derivatives of its XC-2 aircraft in the next 30 years, should the manufacturer decide to proceed with such a program after completing the development of its military transport.
CYBER SUMMIT: The U.S. Air Force is planning to conduct a Cyber Summit next month to help the service and industry shape the mission and its requirements for the future, according to Lt. Gen. Mike Basla, the service’s CIO at the Pentagon. The summit will be hosted by Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh and Secretary Michael Donley, and attended by senior leaders in the service.
The Obama administration is nearing the final and most contentious phase of its massive export control reform — telling Congress what items it ultimately plans to transfer from the U.S. Munitions List (USML) to one controlled by the Commerce Department. By the end of the year, congressional aides are anticipating the administration will detail how it will transfer two key aerospace categories of products from the USML controlled by the State Department to the Commerce list.
Airbus Military has teamed with Yellowknife, Northern Territories-based aviation services company Discovery Air to offer the C295 light tactical transport for the Canadian Forces’ Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue (FWSAR) program. Discovery has signed a memorandum of understanding to be the primary Canadian partner in the bid, providing in-service support. Other Canadian suppliers on the C295 are Pratt & Whitney Canada, CAE, L-3 Wescam and Vector Aerospace.
The effect to the Pentagon of an across-the-board budget cut will be 1.9% steeper than outlined by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) last month, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee tells lawmakers in an Oct. 9 letter.
TEL AVIV — The allegedly Iranian-backed UAV that penetrated Israeli airspace last weekend was shot down 30 km from the Dimona nuclear reactor after flying 30 min. over Israeli territory. According to Israeli officials, the UAV was downed in the area of the Yatir Forest, in the northern Negev, so as to avoid damage to a civilian area.
The U.S. Air Force says it is looking for ways to compensate for gaps in integrated F-22 Raptor life support system testing highlighted by a recent service report investigating pilot breathing incidents. While the different components and equipment that form the stealthy fighter’s life support system all have been modeled and tested individually, there has been no such check of the entire integrated system, according to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) Report on Aircraft Oxygen Generation released last month.
LAUNCHING SCANEAGLE: A shipboard-capable system designed to support the launch and recovery of ScanEagle UAVs completed its final demonstration flight testing Sept. 27 at a testing range in eastern Oregon, the Office of Navy Research (ONR) says. The ONR-sponsored Compact Launch and Recovery System (CLRE) is meant to provide a small-scale system for operating the maritime surveillance aircraft. CLRE uses a compressed-air launcher to shoot the ScanEagle into the sky.
Conventional prompt global strike (CPGS) has been a subject of more talk than action in the U.S. defense community for the past decade, but a new study by the hawkish National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) argues that political and technological change favors a new look at the concept.
AMSTERDAM — The collapse of merger talks between EADS and BAE Systems raises serious questions about the future course of both companies and shows how much influence European governments have over EADS. The two companies called off their planned merger Oct. 10, hours before the expiration of a deadline set by a British takeover commission. Executives mustered last-ditch efforts to save the deal, but it had become increasingly clear since late last week that political reservations could not be overcome.
TEL AVIV — Elbit Systems and Northrop Grumman are collaborating to develop a terrain-following/terrain-avoidance (TF/TA) system to improve tactical, low-level flight safety for military transports. The TF/TA system has already been selected for integration into an ongoing C-130 Hercules upgrade program. It could help pilots carrying out combat search and rescue or Special Operations Forces missions.
ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Boeing is expecting a sole-source contract for the initial U.S. Air Force purchase of Laser-Guided Small-Diameter Bomb (SDB) weapons, according to Kristen Robertson, who heads the program for the company. The service announced its intent Oct. 4, and the initial buy is for use on the AC-130W gunship employed by Air Force Special Operations Command.
The Defense Department’s needs for U.S. Navy intelligence have focused funding on aircraft — especially UAVs — and submarine-related programs, according to recently declassified and released budget documents. The military intelligence programs’ fiscal 2010 budget justification for Congress indicates long-term Pentagon interest and funding programs that likely persist not only through this fiscal year but into the future.
The Pentagon is wasting money because of the way it handles hundreds of millions of dollars invested in single-bid contract awards, a recent Defense Department Inspector General (IG) report says. “The services have not realized potential cost savings associated with increased competition and recompeting $390.9 million in contract modifications,” IG says in its Oct. 4 report. “DOD also cannot accurately assess the percent of improvements in DOD [by] achieving effective competition,” IG reports.
As a step toward a lightweight, multifunction radar for rotorcraft, Northrop Grumman will demonstrate a compact anti-brownout sensor using millimeter-wave active-array technology under a $33.2 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. To be demonstrated in 2014, the Multifunction Radio Frequency (MFRF) sensor will use silicon-germanium transmit/receive tiles arranged in modular sub-arrays that will be combined to produce an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar operating in EHF band at around 90GHz.
Despite recent concerns about developing homegrown security and defense forces in Afghanistan, establishing those types of units can be vital to counterinsurgency efforts, according to the Rand Corp.
The FAA will contract with Pratt & Whitney to modify an F117 turbofan engine—the military version of the PW2000—for a volcanic ash study involving NASA and the U.S. Air Force (USAF). P&W’s F117 powers USAF’s C-17 four-engine military transport aircraft, one of which will be used for the study, which is scheduled to start in March. The ground will inject ash into the modified engine.
Airbus’ research and development efforts on titanium alloys will include a focus on the creation of new alloys with improved machining capabilities and mid- and high-temperature resistance and better fatigue and damage-tolerance properties. The manufacturer’s senior VP-material procurement, Eric Zanin, speaking yesterday at the Titanium 2012 conference in Atlanta, also said Airbus is looking to reduce titanium’s buy-to-fly ratio to lower the amount of the metal needed for each part.
While the U.S. Air Force has ruled out oxygen system or cockpit contaminants as the cause for recent F-22 Raptor pilot breathing issues, toxic chemicals and by-products remain a concern for jet operations, according to the recent service report on pilot oxygen issues. The service should not only continue to monitor contamination issues, the report says, but look at installing filters and sensors that the pilot On-Board Oxygen Generation System (Obogs) system now lacks.
AMSTERDAM — The boards of EADS and BAE Systems were due to meet Oct. 9 to determine whether they should call off the planned merger of the two companies or extend a deadline that expires Oct. 10. The German government has been emerging as the biggest hurdle to an agreement on the massive deal. BAE Systems has to apply for an extended deadline by the afternoon of Oct. 10. Such extensions usually are granted, and would give the two companies 28 more days to forge a deal and come to terms with the three governments.
