OSHKOSH, Wis. — Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) is hoping for a quick resolution of a lawsuit it filed last spring seeking reinstatement of its $355 million U.S. Air Force Light Air Support (LAS) contract, according to Taco Gilbert, the company’s vice president of ISR business development. SNC filed the lawsuit after the Air Force set aside the original award for 20 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft after the losing bidder, Hawker Beechcraft, filed its own lawsuit in protest.
Surrogates for the U.S. presidential candidates dueled in Washington this week, underscoring both sides’ inability to answer questions on the topic of defense spending. Speaking on behalf of the Obama administration at a Brookings Institution event July 25, Michele Flournoy, the former Pentagon under secretary for policy, outlined the military’s broad budget plans, emphasizing that what is called $487 billion in cuts to defense spending over the next decade is just “a reduction in the rate of planned growth.”
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Army and Marine Corps are working on establishing a joint project to develop a UAV outfitted with equipment to perform electronic warfare (EW) missions. “There is a lot of cross talk between us and the Marines” on the UAV, says Col. Jim Ekvall, Army Electronic Warfare Division chief. The services are looking to leverage some of the UAVs currently in the field, from the relatively large Gray Eagle from General Atomics to the much smaller RQ-7 Shadow offered by AAI Corp., Ekvall says.
It costs more to pay for labor and materials for shipbuilding than other industries, and the U.S. Navy’s apparent failure to account for that is causing the service to underestimate its funding needs, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). “Costs of labor and materials have traditionally grown faster in the shipbuilding industry than in the economy as a whole,” CBO says in its latest report on the Navy’s fiscal 2013 shipbuilding plans.
The first element of what could become the U.S. Navy’s sophisticated Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) and electronic attack weapon has flown. The $2 billion program is expected to enter its final phase next July. The Northrop Grumman candidate NGJ pod features the company’s unique power-generating system. Finding a system that can provide the massive amounts of power needed has been a stumbling block for the development of airborne electronic-attack and directed-energy weapons.
While companies have developed various high-tech labeling or testing methods to combat the growing problem of counterfeit military aircraft parts, a trade association leader recommends a more traditional approach adopted in civil aviation: Get a handle on your supply network.
The global market for light tracked vehicles should produce nearly 9,300 units worth more than $19.7 billion through 2021, with China the single biggest producer as it continues its military modernization, according to Forecast International. “The international market for light tracked vehicles remains a highly competitive and dynamic environment,” the group says.
The Pentagon Inspector General’s office says it started an audit in June of the U.S. Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, set to replace the service’s P-3C aircraft.
UNMANNED MILESTONE: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ Gray Eagle UAV has reached 10,000 automatic launch and recoveries with its Automatic Takeoff and Landing System, the company announced July 25. The milestone was achieved on June 2 while the system performed a routine surveillance mission in Afghanistan. The system is now flying 2,300 flight hours per month across six deployment and training sites. In total, Gray Eagle has accumulated 35,000 flight hours since its first deployment in 2008.
Three Republican senators have scheduled a two-day blitz of East Coast military hubs to make the case for preventing a $500 billion reduction to defense spending starting in January.
Last week the House passed a provision in the fiscal 2013 defense appropriations bill to block the Obama administration from reducing the nation’s nuclear stockpile. The provision, which will eventually have to be reconciled with the Senate, points to a fundamental difference of opinion about how to manage the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
NEW DELHI — India will soon release a request for proposals (RFP) for 56 cargo aircraft for its air force to replace its aging fleet of Avros, according to a defense ministry official. The final approval for expanding the cargo fleet of the Indian air force (IAF) at an estimated cost of $2.5 billion was given at a meeting of the Defense Acquisition Council headed by Defense Minister A.K. Antony here July 23.
BEJING — A dozen V-22 Ospreys arrived via ship on Japanese shores July 22, but the aircraft will remain grounded until the U.S. Marine Corps receives the results of investigations into earlier accidents involving the tilt-rotor aircraft, which the service still expects by month’s end.
