The U.S. Air Force has ruled that the first Falcon 9 v1.1 flight conducted last fall does count as one of three required for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to be certified to compete for boosting U.S national security payloads into orbit, as the upstart company works to take on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) monopoly.
The U.S. Air Force’s portion of an emerging Pentagon wish list of extra spending in fiscal 2015 and beyond is $41 billion, including $7 billion in the year starting Oct. 1, according to the armed service’s secretary. Deborah Lee James also told the Bloomberg Government conference on Feb. 26 that the budget request coming March 4 will call for 283 aircraft to be retired, including the A-10 close air support (CAS) fleet and U-2 high-flying reconnaissance system.
POSEIDON WORK: The U.S. Navy this month awarded Boeing a $2.1 billion modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to exercise options for the procurement of 16 P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft full rate production Lot I aircraft and 16 Ancillary Mission Equipment kits for the U.S. Navy. Navy officials tout the P-8A Poseidons as a replacement to P-3C Orion aircraft, especially in the expansive Asia-Pacific. The Pentagon is now refocusing its forces on that region.
The U.S. Air Force’s top 10 acquisition programs will amount to roughly half of its budget requests in fiscal 2015 and beyond, but spending will prioritize new capabilities and even readiness over legacy weapons systems, according to the armed service’s uniformed acquisition chief. “It’s going to be a very delicate balancing act of capability, readiness and systems,” Lt. Gen. Charles Davis, the military deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, told the Bloomberg Government conference Feb. 26.
Embraer’s defense and security revenues grew 15% in 2013, but are coming under pressure from Brazil’s depreciating currency. The real’s value against the U.S. dollar has been dropping as the country’s trade deficit widens. The Brazilian manufacturer has reported net revenues of $6.2 billion for 2013, $1.2 billion of that from its growing defense business. The company is forecasting 2014 defense revenues of $1.2-1.3 billion—an increase of only 4% at the mid-point of the range, says JPMorgan senior analyst Joseph Nadol.
Raytheon says that it is ahead of its U.S. rivals in developing gallium nitride (GaN) technology for active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars and electronic warfare systems, following a number of performance and manufacturing demonstrations. “I can’t think of any reason you’d stay with GaAs [gallium arsenide] for any new system,” says Steve Bernstein, GaN program manager in Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems’ Advanced Technology Group.
PARIS — With Eurofighter Typhoon sales lagging, and Germany expected to reduce its planned order in the multinational program by 37 jets, Airbus Defense and Space is paring back export projections. “I’m not terribly optimistic as to future sales prospects beyond 2017 or so, because so far the export success has been rather meager,” Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders said during a Feb. 26 news conference unveiling the company’s 2013 earnings results. “In addition, we have governments considering uptake cuts for the Eurofighter.”
One billion dollars earmarked in the Pentagon’s forthcoming 2015 budget request will support a new development program “in the next few years” to produce an engine beyond that used for the F-35, says Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for procurement. Pratt & Whitney and General Electric are already working through the Adaptive Engine Technology Development (AETD) program to design engines 25% more efficient than today’s and producing 10% more thrust.
Air Force Under Secretary Eric Fanning says the service is “committed to getting [the RQ-4B Global Hawk] to parity before we divest the U-2 fleet,” indicating the high-flying, manned spy plane could be in the fleet for years to come. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Feb. 24 that the Lockheed Martin U-2 fleet would be mothballed in favor of using the unmanned, long-endurance Northrop Grumman Global Hawk for the high-altitude reconnaissance mission. He did not provide dates; more detail on the fiscal 2015 budget plan will be released March 4.
Lockheed Martin has demonstrated a secretly developed capability to fix one of the shortfalls of its stealthy F-22 and F-35 fighters: their inability to link to one another, or to legacy fighters, for air campaigns.
After trying for years to decommission its older cruisers—only to be thwarted by Congress each time—the U.S. Navy is taking a different approach: the service’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal calls for the ships to be taken out of service and improved for possible later deployments.
LOS ANGELES — AgustaWestland is using its experience gained from the development of an urgent operational requirement for the U.K. to offer an upgraded engine for operators of the Lynx helicopter.
Expect additional funding in the forthcoming fiscal 2015 Pentagon budget request to address shortcomings in the Boeing Ground-Based Midcourse Defense program, according to Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for procurement. “We are going to be taking an initiative to address some of these problems,” Kendall said during the Credit Suisse/McAleese & Associates Defense Programs conference Feb. 25 in Washington. “We recognize the problems we have had with all the currently fielded interceptors,” he said.
LOS ANGELES — Bell Helicopter has been evaluating the ability of its MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor to carry the engine of an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The trials, part of the company’s ongoing work to prove the Osprey as a potential successor to the Grumman C-2 Greyhound carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft, saw the company load a frame designed by Pratt & Whitney to carry the power section of the F135 engine loaded into the rear cabin of the Osprey.
DEFENSE ELECTRONICS: The U.S. defense electronics market has emerged from the recent recession and is recovering, Forecast International says in its latest market forecast. The consultancy says the 500-plus leading programs reviewed in the study will be worth at least $137.4 billion between 2014-2023. “The big push remains on developing groundbreaking technologies, but due to tight budgets, this goal will be very hard to achieve,” says Richard Sterk, Forecast International senior analyst.
Aurora Flight Sciences and Lockheed Martin are preparing for their demonstrations under the first phase of the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (Aacus) program. The goal of the five-year Aacus program is to demonstrate the capability for a soldier on the ground to use a handheld device to call up an unmanned helicopter for cargo resupply or casualty evacuation.
ARMY EADS-NA, Herndon, Va., was awarded a $22,856,085 modification (P00766) to contract W58RGZ-06-C-0194 to acquire four UH-72A Lakota helicopters with engine inlet barrier filters and ARC-231 radios. Fiscal 2014 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $22,856,085 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is March 31, 2015. The work will be performed in Columbia, Miss. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Relatively flat spending proposed for the Pentagon in fiscal 2015, followed by potentially significant – but highly uncertain – increases in 2016 and beyond have Wall Street analysts and the aerospace and defense industry hopeful that 2013-14 represents the nadir for U.S. defense spending.
NEW MARKETS: Western investors have been increasingly and eagerly eyeing a potential new wave of developing economies to bet on, and now at least one report asserts the defense sector in particular should pay attention. Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey are expected to increase their defense spending from $40.6 billion now to $61.1 billion by 2019, according to online report provider ReportsnReports.com.
Final reports on the 2012 Delta IV anomaly that generated low thrust in its RL-10B-2 upper-stage engine are expected in April, but the successful launch of a Delta IV with the GPS IIF-5 spacecraft Feb. 20 indicates fixes added to the launcher’s engine-processing procedures worked as planned.
While the U.S. Navy plans to start the work needed to overhaul and refuel the aircraft carrier George Washington as part of its mid-life overhaul, whether the service will complete that job or decommission the ship remains in doubt.
In determining the future of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) — and the missions the ship is slated to perform — the Pentagon is looking back to the program’s roots, when the U.S. Navy sought a smaller but capable ship to take care of threats in coastal areas and help clear the way for national capital assets.
