NEW DELHI — Boeing has moved a step closer to delivering the first P-8I aircraft to the Indian navy, with the flight-test program of the long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft now under way. “The Boeing-led team is on track to deliver the first aircraft to the Indian navy in May 2013,” say company officials.
FARNBOROUGH — Piaggio is teaming with Saab to develop a new maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) based on a highly modified version of its P.180 Avanti II business aircraft. At the Farnborough air show on July 10, Piaggio Aero announced that it signed a contract with Abu Dhabi Autonomous System Investments, a subsidiary of Tawazun, covering the development of the aircraft and the construction of two prototypes. The first is to fly in 2014.
As the U.S. Navy continues to search for the root causes of the rare engine issues that led to the April crash of an F/A-18D in Virginia Beach, Va., the service also is looking at changes in training and procedures the brass says likely could avert such future incidents.
FARNBOROUGH — Although Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) intends to boost its civil business to 40% of the whole within the next two years, military aviation continues to figure strongly in the strategy being followed by President Mikhail Pogosyan. Speaking at the Farnborough air show this week, Pogosyan noted that of 485 aircraft to be built by UAC member companies in 2012-14, some 60% will be combat aircraft, trainers or military transports.
FARNBOROUGH — After a long flirtation with the concept of a partnership to offer a foreign fast-jet trainer to the U.S. Air Force as a T-38C replacement, Boeing will forgo an off-the-shelf bid in favor of a new-build design or opt not to bid at all.
FARNBOROUGH — Lockheed Martin has flown a small unmanned aircraft for 48 hr. using laser power beaming as the company works to grow its presence in the UAV market. The test took place in a wind tunnel and involved Lockheed’s hand-launched, battery-powered Stalker UAV and LaserMotive’s power beaming system. Stalker has an endurance of 2 hr. on battery power alone. In 2011, Lockheed flew an “extreme endurance” version able to stay aloft for more than 8 hr. on combined propane fuel-cell and lithium-polymer battery power.
With there no longer being an urgent need to quickly buy and build vastly up-armored vehicles to prowl the terrain in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon is returning to a more customary approach to developing and procuring its ground equipment. A case in point is the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), a program about to enter its engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase.
SINGAPORE — Now that the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has secured the tactical and strategic airlift that it wanted, the service airlift group’s next procurement is for VIP air transportation.
Missile guidance seekers could be helping helicopter pilots land safely in brownout conditions that have caused dozens of helicopter accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan
AIR FORCE Teradyne Inc., North Reading, Mass., is being awarded a $16,848,088 firm-fixed-price contract to procurement components for the organic assembly of 25 Versatile Depot Automatic Test Systems. The location of the performance is North Reading, Mass. The work is to be completed by Sept. 30, 2013. WR-ALC/PKOA, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8571-12-F-0002). NAVY
FARNBOROUGH — After a protracted protest from losing contractor Northrop Grumman, Raytheon has finally restarted work for the U.S. Air Force on a radar designed to find and track individuals on the ground.
FARNBOROUGH — Eurocopter and Heli-One are teaming to bolster a bid for Norway’s next-generation fleet of search-and-rescue (SAR) helicopters. Norway has said it needs new SAR helicopters, and Eurocopter is putting forward its EC225, optimized for these missions in Nordic environments and capable of flying in mountainous and coastal regions.
FARNBOROUGH — Lockheed Martin has finally begun delivery of the latest lot of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to the Pentagon after a roughly six-month delay. The Pentagon has accepted delivery of three conventional-takeoff-and-landing (CTOL) variants and one short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) version, says Marillyn Hewson, the incoming chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin, F-35 prime contractor.
FARNBOROUGH — Unmanned systems are making a big showing at the Farnborough air show here, but a highly anticipated announcement on advancing Franco-U.K. cooperation on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is looking unlikely. During a Franco-British summit held in February, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to forge ahead with joint development of a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drone by 2020.
FARNBOROUGH — Rockwell Collins Chairman and CEO Clay Jones expects U.S. defense budgets to decline in 2013 and 2014, regardless of whether Democratic President Barack Obama or presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney win the U.S. presidential election in November.
TEL AVIV — The new chief at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) plans to push the company to spend more on R&D and increase investments in technologies including advanced cyber, stealth, radar, communications, air defenses, gallium nitride microchips and unmanned aircraft. On the commercial side, the emphasis will be on producing longer-range executive jets.
FARNBOROUGH — Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon’s Missile Systems business, is less than happy about the U.K.’s recent approach to weapons planning, including the awards made so far under the Team Complex Weapons (TCW) initiative. “We have been disappointed in the pace of opportunities presented to us,” Lawrence says. “The U.K. said that it was open to competition, but so far we have not seen any competition coming forward.”
The U.S. Navy recently awarded a $212.7 million fixed-priced, incentive-fee contract for the detail design and construction of a Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) test and training craft to New Orleans-based Textron. The cumulative value of the hovercraft contract could reach as high as $570.5 million, if the Navy exercises options for up to eight additional craft.
A five-year contract for H-60 helicopters signed by Sikorsky and the U.S. Army gives a Pentagon facing budget uncertainty some flexibility to adjust its procurement numbers over the coming years. The $8.5 billion baseline contract covers 653 Black Hawk and Seahawk helicopters for delivery by December 2017, and includes 106 aircraft for foreign military sales (FMS) customers in addition to 354 UH/HH-60Ms for the Army and 193 MH-60R/Ss for the Navy.
FARNBOROUGH — Boeing is pitching in to strengthen Embraer’s bid in the U.S. Air Force’s protracted Light Air Support (LAS) competition by lending its weapons integration expertise, addressing a perceived weakness of Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano offering. The U.S. manufacturer will work on integration and testing of its Joint Direct Attack Munition and Small-Diameter Bomb onto the Super Tucano. U.S. weapons have never been integrated onto the aircraft before.
AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $500,000,000 firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the C-17 transition to post production, which will provide for orderly transfer of C-17 production assets. The location of the performance is Long Beach. The work is to be completed by July 5, 2022. ASC/WLMK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8614-12-D-2049, Order 0001).
FARNBOROUGH — Finmeccanica’s Selex Galileo unit has found a fourth export customer for the Falco Tactical UAV, but will not identify the country. Pakistan was the launch customer for the Falco, and as many as 24 units are thought to be in service there. The Falco can be equipped with a variety of sensor payloads, including electro-optical and infrared sensors as well as multimode radar.
