The U.S. Navy plans to introduce its new Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) into the fleet on the EA-18G in 2020, though development has slipped six months as a result of its bid protest.
Sabreliner Corporation’s business leaned heavily on military contracts that disappeared during sequestration, forcing the company into default on its bank loan and leading to the bank’s sale of the company to an investment firm.
NEW DELHI — With general elections expected before May, corruption scandals over high-profile defense deals, and a deflated rupee, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony, who has cultivated an image of integrity, has taken a go-slow approach on vitally needed military equipment projects.
BIG GUNS: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, Raytheon and General Dynamics are the top five defense contractors worldwide, according to the latest assessment of the industry by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). Rounding out the top 10 for 2012—the last year of full data available for comparison—were Northrop Grumman, EADS (now Airbus Group), United Technologies, Finmeccanica and L-3 Communications.
While India remains the biggest spender among U.S. allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific, Indonesia plans to grow its spending at an even faster clip through fiscal 2023, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) data analysis.
LONDON — France and the U.K. have agreed to spend £120 million ($197 million) on a feasibility study toward a joint unmanned combat aircraft (UCAV). The agreement, announced jointly by French President Francois Hollande and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron during a one-day summit Jan. 31 at RAF Brize Norton, U.K., is part of a wider scheme to strengthen defense ties following the Lancaster House treaty signed in 2010.
Europe and Russia are pushing ahead with plans for fast-rotorcraft demonstrators, as the U.S. Army moves towards a downselect this year to two high-speed rotorcraft configurations for flight tests beginning in 2017. Officials from the Clean Sky civil-aviation research program are touring Europe, briefing industry and academia on plans for a follow-on program that would include two different fast-rotorcraft flight demonstrators.
Sabreliner Corporation’s business leaned heavily on military contracts that disappeared during sequestration, forcing the company into default on its bank loan and leading to the bank’s sale of the company to an investment firm.
The senior U.S. Air Force officer overseeing the Boeing KC-46 next-generation aerial refueler says his testing plan for the program is on track, countering a more grim assessment from Pentagon chief tester Michael Gilmore.
Jim Roche, deputy CEO of Pilatus Aircraft, explains how the Swiss company expects to expand its presence in both defense and general aviation markets in India, in an interview with AW&ST Contributing Editor Jay Menon. AW&ST: What are the short- and long-term business plans for Pilatus in India?
Two recent events epitomize radically diverging fates in the global defense industry. At the end of 2013, Singapore ordered Type 218SG submarines from German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) for €1.6 billion ($2.2 billion). A month later, the French defense minister awarded a €1 billion contract for the modernization of Dassault's Rafale fighter aircraft (see photo). A good story for both companies? Not quite.
Sharing borders with China and Pakistan, both of which have undertaken their own weapons modernization efforts, and having borne the brunt of devastating terrorist attacks, India has undertaken its own military transformation. Without its own defense industrial base, India's modernization has been fueled by imports, and India now tops the list of global weapons buyers in the last five years (see map on pages 74-75). Despite procurement delays due to India's current political situation, the trend is expected to continue in the long term.
An audacious project to convert land-based helicopters for shipborne amphibious operations has been given the go-ahead by the U.K. Defense Ministry. The £330 million ($546 million) program, awarded to AgustaWestland in December but only formally announced on Jan. 29, helps to secure the U.K.'s amphibious power projection capabilities, which will become a key part of the country's ability to mount a Responsive Force Task Group (RFTG) on its future Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.
As efforts to strengthen India's defense-industrial base have fallen far short of the country's self-reliance target, the military is continuing to look abroad for its defense hardware. That is encouraging to international equipment manufacturers from the U.S., Russia, France, Israel, the U.K. and Germany, which have been establishing relationships in India to sell aircraft, tanks, howitzers, unmanned aerial vehicles, combat vehicles, missiles, infantry weapons, submarines and support equipment.
“There is an awful lot of software on this program. It scares the heck out of me.” That was U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan's candid reaction to the F-35's dependence on yet-to-be-delivered software before he assumed the top spot overseeing the $390 billion program in December 2012. At that time, he was serving as the program's deputy and was just getting his head around the massive software effort behind various capability releases that would underpin the operational readiness of the three F-35 variants.
The high cost of training aircrews for the U.K.'s battlefield support helicopters is prompting senior officers to look at cheaper options to maintain crew currency. With types such as the CH-47 Chinook costing what commanders describe as in the “high teens” of thousands of pounds per hour to operate, officials from the U.K.'s tri-service Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) are drawing up ideas to potentially introduce a less expensive rotorcraft fitted with a comparable modern avionics suite to keep crews current.
