Operation of the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter in Afghanistan has been extended through November 2014, but the U.S. Navy has not yet decided whether to replace the aircraft that crashed in June 2013. The crash left a single K-Max operational in Afghanistan, ferrying supplies to and from remote forward Marine Corps bases. Lockheed and Kaman have said the aircraft is repairable, or alternatively a replacement K-Max is available.
Canada is to have fully capable CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopters by 2018 — 10 years behind schedule — under a new agreement reached with manufacturer Sikorsky. The Canadian government is sticking with the years-late Cyclone after an independent evaluation determined that the C$5.1 billion ($4.8 billion) program would be viable with changes to the project structure and governance.
This week could see a surge of news on fresh fiscal 2014 appropriations, as House and Senate appropriators are working feverishly to put together a so-called omnibus spending bill by Jan. 15, when the stopgap continuing resolution (CR) of 2013 funds runs out.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) plans to award Lockheed Martin a contract to continue development and conduct additional flight tests of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm), keeping the weapon on track for possible deployment in 2018. Pentagon efforts to transition Lrasm from a Darpa/Office of Naval Research (ONR) demonstration to a program of record without a competition have attracted controversy. But in a December notice, Darpa announced its intent to award Lockheed a sole-source contract for follow-on development.
Lawmakers have adopted a plan to transfer new Alenia C-27Js from the U.S. Air Force to the U.S. Coast Guard, and older Coast Guard Lockheed Martin C-130s to the U.S. Forest Service after a protracted interagency debate over the aircraft last year. The transfers were signed into law with the long-awaited passage of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act last month.
CRACKING DOWN: U.S. law firm Hughes, Hubbard & Reed says the developing and Western world is catching up with American enforcements against business corruption. “Although the United States remains the most active anticorruption regulator, other agencies around the world (including national regulators and multinational development banks) have shown a greater proclivity toward prosecuting bribery offenses,” the lawyers say in a 2013 review of global antibribery actions. A recent example is India’s cancellation of its AgustaWestland AW101 helicopter buy.
U.S. Special Operations command recently leased the Lockheed Martin S301 Special Operations Forces dry combat submersible. In late 2013 the command awarded Lockheed an estimated $10 million sole-sourced lease of the S301, a commercially-classed dry submersible vessel, to support risk mitigation research, development, test, and evaluation in support of Socom’s long-term dry-combat-submersibles program objectives.
HONOLULU, Hawaii — As the U.S. continues to rebalance its naval forces to the Asia-Pacific region, one potential threat still looms large—the development of a Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile. “Known as the DF-21D, this missile provides the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] with the capability to attack large ships, including aircraft carriers, in the western Pacific,” the Pentagon says in its most recent annual report on Chinese military capabilities. “The DF-21D has a range exceeding 1,500 km [930 mi.] and is armed with a maneuverable warhead.”
India ranks as the leading naval ship supplier for Asia-Pacific partners and allies of the U.S., according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of data provided by Avascent Analytics. The analysis indicates that India will sell about $24.5 billion worth of naval ships and related equipment—including development services and production—to Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand over the period 2009-2023.
The U.S. Navy wants to take to sea the kind of robust simulations it gets on land at its Fleet Integrated Synthetic Training and Testing Facility (Fist2fac) operated by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport, located on Ford Island, Hawaii.
HAPPY NEW YEAR: Wall Street analysts at RBC Capital Markets see the large, publicly held, global aerospace sector enjoying a more “straightforward” year than 2013. “Across the various markets, we expect revenue growth, improved margins and good cash generation, with a notable recovery in the aerospace aftermarket and a belated pick up in business jet demand,” they say of 2014.
U.S. Transportation Command (Transcom), Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and the related military services offices last week changed to an automatic identification technology that the Pentagon expects will save millions of dollars annually in transportation and distribution costs. The Pentagon is migrating Active Radio Frequency Identification, or aRFID, tags to the ISO 1800-7 standard.
NEW DELHI — India’s Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), capable of assisting in maritime security and deep-sea operations, is readying for more sea trials. The AUV will be capable of a variety of missions including surveillance, sensor deployment and mine countermeasures, as well as ammunition delivery. It operates via a mother ship from which it is launched, controlled and recovered.
The U.S. Navy should take steps to help it weather enemy “surprise” capabilities, a recent National Research Council (NRC) report says. “U.S. naval forces as a whole do not seem to be utilizing the best methodologies for assessing surprise,” NRC says in a prepublication version of its report, released in December.
NEW DELHI — India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) may have finally been cleared for entry into squadron service, but the coming year ushers in a critical round of testing for the Mk. 1 fighters to meet a final deadline of December 2014 to be fully operational. The tests are crucial to how the Indian air force (IAF) will deploy the jet, built chiefly to replace large numbers of MiG-21 interceptors still in service with frontline squadrons.
After shortlisting 25 proposals from 24 states, the FAA has selected six test sites across the U.S. to conduct civil unmanned aircraft system (UAS) research. Geographic and climatic diversity were key requirements for the selection. The six selected operators are: the University of Alaska, the state of Nevada, New York’s Griffiss International Airport, North Dakota Department of Commerce, Texas A&M University, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
EADS has formally rebranded as Airbus Group, retaining its Airbus commercial aircraft identity and renaming its other two divisions as Airbus Defence and Space, and Airbus Helicopters. This means the group’s Cassidian, Astrium and Airbus Military defense and space activities have now been united under the Airbus Defence and Space division. Airbus Group is also planning to change its legal status, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, although its organizational structure and operations will remain the same.
NEW DELHI — India on Jan. 1 canceled its $770 million contract with AgustaWestland for the purchase of 12 AW101 helicopters, following a bribery scandal. “The government of India has terminated the contract on grounds of breach of the pre-contract integrity pact and the agreement by AgustaWestland,” a defense ministry spokesman says. The order to cancel the contract was signed by Defense Minister A.K. Antony, who earlier in the day met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
LONDON — The French air force has conducted its first operational mission with an Airbus A400M airlifter, taking cargo to Mali. The air arm used its second delivered aircraft to conduct the flight from Orleans-Bricy AB, France, to Bamako, the Malian capital, on Dec. 29 to support Operation Serval, the ongoing intervention of French forces against Islamic militants in the region.
HONOLULU, Hawaii — The just-completed first Western Pacific deployment of the U.S. Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1), the USS Freedom, is yielding a raft of lessons learned that will likely result in maintenance-related tweaks of the LCS concept of operations (conops), service officials say. “We’re probably going to increase flexibility of [the] maintenance cycle,” Capt. J.R. Garner, LCS Squadron One commodore, tells the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), referring to such operations as the “single-point” Achilles Heel.
