The Pentagon is going on the offensive over electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) management issues — both internally and externally — according to officials’ comments on Feb. 20 as they unveiled the U.S. Defense Department’s long-awaited EMS strategy. “It’s an objective to be more proactive than reactive,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert Wheeler, the department’s deputy chief information officer (CIO) for command, control, communications, computers and information infrastructure capabilities.
Raytheon has tested the latest Block III version of its Griffin miniature air-to-ground missile, which public documents say is to enter service this year on U.S. Air Force special operations gunships. The Block III enhancements, which apply to both the AGM-176A aft-launched and -176B forward-launched versions of the 33-lb. weapon, are an improved laser seeker and multi-effects warhead to increase lethality.
U.S. Naval Support Weapon Systems Support (Navsup WSS) officials this month approved a program to modify spare F/A-18 Hornet windshield panels to fit Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers, Navy officials say. The initiative, known as the F/A-18 Windshield Logistics Engineering Change Proposal (LECP), will save the Navy approximately $8 million in fiscal years 2015 and 2016, according to the service.
NEW DELHI — Indo-Russian consortium BrahMos Aerospace has plans to develop a Mach 7 hypersonic missile, the BrahMos 2. “We have established a lead in supersonic missiles,” says Praveen Pathak, general manager for market promotion and export at BrahMos Aerospace. “Hypersonic vehicles with multi-use will reduce the cost [of] putting payload in orbit. It could deliver the payload at multiple points and it can come back.”
INTEL AUDIT: A new congressional audit of the Intelligence Community’s (IC) annual inventory of core contractors has found results there to be inconsistent and possibly inaccurate. “In the wake of Edward Snowden’s damaging leaks of classified information, the intelligence community must demonstrate that it can rigorously vet, hire, manage, and oversee the contractor workforce it relies upon to help perform its mission,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
LONDON — Missile manufacturer MBDA says a recovery program to put its Brimstone 2 missile program back on track has improved the weapon’s maturity and performance. Brimstone 2 is being developed by MBDA under the Team Complex Weapons initiative to meet the U.K.’s Selected Precision Effects at Range (Spear) Capability 2 requirement for a direct-fire, air-to-ground missile for eventual use on the Eurofighter Typhoon.
SINGAPORE — Airbus Defense and Space says it is involved in two advanced sales campaigns for its A400M airlifter. Speaking at the recent Singapore air show—where the company was debuting its new identity, having absorbed both Cassidian and Astrium into Airbus Military at the beginning of 2014—Commercial Director Christian Scherer said that the company was involved in “at least two advanced campaigns around the world,” for the new airlifter, and was confident that one contract could be secured this year.
The U.S. is pressing Persian Gulf allies to adopt a regional missile defense architecture, including the acquisition of U.S. systems, the State Department’s No. 2 official reiterated Feb. 19.
UAV AUDIT: U.S. congressional auditors are due to deliver a report to lawmakers recommending changes to how the U.S. Air Force manages and promotes UAV pilots. The report was spurred in 2012 by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), whose state is home to major Air Force UAV operations, and Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). It was triggered by congressional concerns that unmanned aircraft pilots were experiencing second-class status compared with the armed services’ traditional manned aircraft pilots.
Small vessels that represent a crime or piracy threat in global waters also present a potential means to smuggle weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into the U.S., according to a National Research Council (NRC) report.
LONDON — U.S. heavy-lift helicopter operator Columbia Helicopters is buying three ex-U.S. Army Boeing CH-47D Chinooks to bolster its fleet of the tandem-rotor helicopter. The purchase represents the first time a commercial operator has purchased former Army Chinooks for commercial use. The aircraft will be refurbished at the company’s maintenance facility at Portland, Ore., before beginning operations, although Columbia says no specific projects or contracts have been identified for the new Chinooks.
Anticipating the long-awaited release of the U.S. Navy’s draft request for proposals for a new carrier-borne unmanned air system (UAS), one influential congressman is going on record to support a set of demanding requirements. This could, perhaps, counter a push by some Pentagon leaders, including Adm. James Winnefeld, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is said to be supporting requirements that are less rigorous in the area of survivability than those backed by officials in the Navy’s aviation community.
TEL AVIV — Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) a is expanding its cyber activities internationally, with the establishment of a cybersecurity research and development center in Singapore.
India’s military procurement plans are likely to be hampered by a minimal raise in budget allocation for acquisition in the next financial year. Though India has proposed increasing its defense spending by 10% to 2.24 trillion rupees ($36.2 billion) in its 2014-15 fiscal year, which begins April 1, the capital allocation earmarked to buy new arms and weapons systems has been increased by only a paltry 3.2%, or 28.47 billion rupees, to 895.87 billion rupees. The remaining 1.34 trillion rupees will go toward payment of salaries and other expenses.
LONDON — The French defense ministry has taken delivery of its first upgraded E-3F Sentry airborne early warning aircraft to be modified by Boeing and Air France Industries. The aircraft was handed over to the French defense procurement agency DGA, which will carry out ground and flight tests at Avord air base before handing the aircraft back to the French air force later this year, Boeing announced Feb. 17.
U.S. Army contracting officers made questionable contract changes for work involving the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV), a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.
The U.S. Navy has further bolstered its Asia-Pacific profile by moving another submarine — the SSN-754 USS Topeka Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine — to the region. The Navy detailed its plans this month to change the homeport for the submarine, now completing its Engineered Overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in Portsmouth, N.H., to Naval Base Guam. Topeka will move to Guam as part of the U.S. Navy’s long-range plan to put the most advanced and capable units forward in the region, the Navy says.
Three prominent Republican congressmen are imploring Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to continue funding the U.S. Air Force’s U-2 spy aircraft as he puts the finishing touches on a fiscal 2015-19 budget plan likely to gut the program. Hagel’s staff is considering abandoning support for the Lockheed Martin aircraft and capitulating to pressure from other lawmakers to funnel its money toward continued operation of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial system (UAS).
Despite a need for ship modifications and other programmatic hiccups, the U.S. Marine Corps still plans to be operating Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35B models off amphibious ships within about three years, says Marine Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, director of Navy expeditionary warfare. Marines will be at the forefront of operating JSFs off Navy vessels, Walsh said at a recent U.S. Navy Amphibious Warship Forum sponsored by the Amphibious Warship Industrial Base Coalition. “We will be flying F-35s on a big-deck amphib,” he said Feb. 11.
