Flight-simulator manufacturer CAE is to receive a C$250 million ($225 million) repayable investment from the Canadian government to support its Project Innovate program to develop new modeling and simulation technologies. Investment in the company’s research and development program, which will continue into 2020, is being made under the federal government’s Strategic Aerospace and Defense Initiative (SADI).
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Army would reduce the number of combat aviation brigades, eliminate the Kiowa scout helicopter program and buy more Lakota Light Utility helicopters as part of a broad transformation of its aviation strategy over the next five years, officials explained on March 5. Army plans also call for pairing MQ-1 Gray Eagle and RQ-7 Shadow UAVs with AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to perform the Kiowa’s scouting mission.
THE PENTAGON — The Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) program may be on its way out, but the U.S. Army is still building, buying and developing replacements for a variety of ground vehicles. The Army’s $121 billion base budget request for fiscal 2015 announced on March 4 includes $1.83 billion for ground mobility vehicles, down slightly from the $1.85 billion approved by Congress in December, when it passed a budget deal that capped defense spending at $496 billion for fiscal 2015.
THE PENTAGON — In its fiscal 2015 budget request, the U.S. Air Force is cutting $2.1 billion in funding through 2019 for the seventh and eighth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites, considering mothballing a weather satellite before it even gets to orbit and is slipping GPS III deliveries. These are some of the changes in the Air Force’s $5.26 billion request for space research and development and procurement for 2015-19, a budget with little wiggle room due to congressionally mandated spending limits.
THE PENTAGON — The Pentagon is planning yet another upgrade to address shortcomings in the Raytheon Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), the hit-to-kill mechanism required for the Defense Department to shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles. Problems with the EKV are at the root of at least two of three failed intercept attempts in the past five years. The kill vehicles were designed as prototypes and pressed into service by the George W. Bush administration as a response to a perceived threat from North Korea.
Sikorsky and the Turkish government have finally sealed a long-awaited helicopter production deal that will see Turkish industry building 300 Black Hawk helicopters for domestic and international use. Signing of the $3.5 billion Turkish Utility Helicopter Program (TUHP) was announced by Turkey’s Undersecretary for Defense Industries, Murad Bayar, on Feb. 21 during a ceremony at Konya air base. However, his department, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), did not announce details of the deal until this week.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing’s Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) demonstrator, a modified Bombardier Challenger 604 business jet, has been flown to Boeing’s Yuma, Ariz., facility for initial certification flight tests following extensive conversion work by Ontario, Canada-based Field Aviation.
The U.S. Coast Guard is continuing to fund acquisition and improvement programs for its aircraft and ships despite an overall cut in its proposed fiscal 2015 spending plan. The fiscal 2015 plan of about $9.8 billion is about $418 million, or 4.1%, less than the enacted fiscal 2014 spending plan of about $10.2 billion.
THE PENTAGON — The fiscal 2015 baseline budget request for the U.S. Navy, announced March 4, is $148 billion, compared to the $156 billion 2014 request, which was whittled down to $150 billion by the Budget Control Act and its mandatory sequestration spending cuts.
THE PENTAGON — Spending constraints imposed on the defense budget, capped by Congress at $496 billion for fiscal 2015, have forced the U.S. Army to re-examine its aviation structures, officials told a Pentagon budget briefing on March 4. The Army is asking Congress for $5.10 billion for aircraft and aviation equipment, compared to the $5.02 billion sought in fiscal 2014 and the $4.76 billion approved by Congress in December.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Two of the recent intercept failures by the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system were due to “fairly simple” issues, says U.S. Navy Vice Adm. James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency. Syring is “disappointed” with Boeing’s performance in flight testing the GMD system; the last successful GMD intercept took place in December 2008. The next was expected this spring, but is now set for June. He spoke March 4 at Aviation Week’s Defense Technologies and Requirements conference in Arlington, Va.
THE PENTAGON — Thanks to the U.S. Navy’s continued focus on ballistic missile defense (BMD), as well as its need to develop a stronger coastal presence, investments in its DDG destroyers and Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) are driving the service’s surface-ship funding in its fiscal 2015 budget proposal. Anchoring the BMD missions is the development of Aegis combat system improvement on DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyers. The fiscal 2015 plan requests $2.8 billion for two Burkes as part of the fiscal 2013-17 multi-year procurement (MYP) for the ships.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy wants to buy more F-35B short-takeoff-vertical-landing (Stovl) Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) for the Marine Corps across the future years defense plan (FYDP), ending in fiscal 2019, while cutting the number of F-35C carrier variants of the aircraft, according to the service’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal. The Lockheed Martin F-35B is the linchpin of the Marines’ future aviation plans, and service officials note the first operational aircraft will operate off amphibious ships supporting Corps operations within three years.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Air Force has decided to move forward in acquiring the Combat Rescue Helicopter, utilizing funds Congress mandated in fiscal 2014 final appropriations, the armed service’s budget director said March 4.
THE PENTAGON — While continuing to build more SSN Virginia-class attack submarines, the U.S. Navy is also investing in development of the SSBN Trident nuclear-missile fleet, according to its proposed fiscal 2015 spending plan. The budget proposal announced March 4 includes about $5.9 billion for two more Virginia-class subs.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Army is seeking a modest increase in intelligence and unmanned aircraft acquisitions in its $125 billion budget request for fiscal 2015, service officials said March 4. The Army is seeking $1.10 billion for intelligence acquisitions and research and development, down slightly from the $1.17 billion approved by Congress in December for the current fiscal year.
THE PENTAGON — U.S. defense officials are putting their money where their mouths have been with the fiscal 2015 budget request to Congress, which emphasizes the pursuit of new and critical military technology over the size of the military, or even how it is compensated and trained.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Flight restrictions that stop the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from flying within 25 nm of a lightning storm could be lifted next year, senior program officials have said. The restrictions, partly the result of a 2006 bid to reduce weight in the short takeoff and landing (STOVL) F-35B, could be lifted thanks to changes in the onboard inert gas generating system (Obiggs) that are due to be flight tested in the coming weeks.
THE PENTAGON — Putting to rest—for now—questions about the U.S. Navy’s support for the nation’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier fleet, the service’s fiscal year 2015 budget includes money for next-generation models, as well as funding to anchor the overhaul of existing ships.
The U.S. Navy recently awarded about $359 million in contract modification work involving V-22 Ospreys to the Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office, Amarillo, Texas and to Rolls-Royce of Indianapolis, Ind. The bulk of the award—about $351 million—was for a Feb. 28 modification to a previously awarded, cost-plus-incentive, fixed-price incentive-fee contract for the Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office for V-22 joint performance-based logistics support. The work is expected to be completed in November 2016.
