There's nothing novel about European firms chasing export deals to offset shrinking domestic defense budgets, but MBDA wants to go a step further by making weapon-design decisions to help enhance its new products for customers beyond the home market. Historically, MBDA—the joint venture comprising BAE Systems, Finmeccanica and EADS—has generated roughly 30% of turnover from exports. But Paul Stanley, market development director, notes that “to sustain the business we will be looking much more to 50%” of exports.
AZERIS DENIED: The U.S. State Department will not approve the sale of military equipment to Azerbaijan, according to a key U.S. lawmaker who opposed helping the central Asian nation. State had proposed adding Azerbaijan to the authorized sales territory for military equipment that would be used in helicopter-borne border surveillance and “police-type” activities. Rep.
Walter J. Zable, the aerospace industry's oldest and longest-serving CEO and a pioneer in the field of global positioning, died June 23 of natural causes at a San Diego-area hospital. He was 97. Zable founded Cubic Corp. in 1951 in a San Diego storefront. Long before GPS was invented, the company developed a satellite-based technology that identified the location of land masses and enabled the U.S. military to pinpoint targets to improve the accuracy of ballistic missiles. Later, Cubic fielded the world's first instrumented air combat training system.
Battlefield medicine often leads to major medical breakthroughs and the war in Afghanistan is no exception. The Mobile Oxygen Ventilation and External Suction system, or Moves, was developed and designed by Canada's Thornhill Research for $7 million for the U.S. Marine Corps. The life-support system comprises a ventilator, oxygen concentrator, suction system, patient monitoring, and display module and mounts for up to three infusion pumps or a defibrillator, and is contained in a box that weighs just 24 kg (53 lb.).
Russia has claimed the successful test of a prototype of new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The new missile was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk spaceport in May and its warhead reached a designated area in the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The military also said the missile will have improved capabilities to overcome anti-ballistic missile defenses being deployed by the U.S.—an important new priority for Moscow after years of trying to forestall U.S. missile-defense developments.
FORT WORTH APPROVES: Lockheed Martin’s union workers in Fort Worth and elsewhere who build the F-35 and F-16 voted June 28 by an 80% margin to accept a new four-year labor contract that will provide yearly pay increases of 2.5-3% and bonuses.
Boot-centric warfare (BCW) is a resilient idea. It holds that the war is not truly engaged in, let alone won, until a rifleman's boots are on the ground. But BCW doctrine does not withstand historical analysis. While believers remind you that World War II was not won from the air, they forget how close it came to being lost in the North Atlantic. And the Cold War was decided without a single steel-capped toe crossing the East-West divide in anger.
General Dynamics (GD) recently reached an agreement to buy the ship repair and coatings division of Virginia-based Earl Industries, in a move that extends GD’s reach into the burgeoning naval ship-repair business, especially in the hotly contested mid-Atlantic region.
Fleet size matters, but so does capability when it comes to deciding the right ship mix for the Pacific-pivot focus of the U.S. Navy in the coming years, the chief of naval operations (CNO) says. While the Navy will be looking to put more ships in the Pacific, the service also will be focused on plugging in the right kind of ships, according to CNO Adm. Jonathan Greenert.
In a major consolidation to address an era of fixed-price contracts and lower defense and civil space spending, Lockheed Martin Space Systems is establishing two basic business lines — military and civil — rather than the separate talent pools devoted to more specific requirements in each of those areas.
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The U.S. plan for its European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) to ballistic missile defense (BMD) took another step closer to proving its viability with a second successful flight intercept test this week. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and crewmembers of the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie conducted the Aegis flight test on June 26. The test is a solid win for the program, which has faced questions over development costs and testing issues.
VETO BAIT: Just as it did for the House version of the defense authorization bill, the White House is threatening to veto the defense spending bill for 2013. The Obama administration has a long list of objections to the bill, but its biggest problem is the fact that the House bill exceeds by more than $5 billion spending caps on the Pentagon established last year by the Budget Control Act (BCA). And even though that amount is offset by reductions in other House spending bills, the shift is a no-go for the administration.
The U.S. Army is evaluating AgustaWestland’s AW139 medium twin-turbine helicopter as the company prepares to propose the smaller AW169 for the service’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement. AgustaWestland North America is the first of five companies expected to provide available helicopters for evaluation in voluntary flight demonstrations as part of the Army’s AAS acquisition strategy.
James Albaugh, the Boeing veteran who has been a management leader in all of the company’s product markets — space, defense and airliners — will retire as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) on Oct. 1. Boeing Chairman and CEO James McNerney has named another company veteran to succeed Albaugh. Executive Vice President Raymond L. Conner joined Boeing 34 years ago as a mechanic and currently heads its global sales operations.
LOS ANGELES — Rolls-Royce confirms it is throwing its hat into the ring for the U.S. Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Technology Development program (AETD), which aims to demonstrate potential fuel saving features for sixth-generation fighters as well as future bombers and other tactical aircraft. Mark Wilson, chief operating officer of Rolls-Royce’s Liberty Works advanced development organization in Indianapolis, says “We did put in a bid for the adaptive engine technology program, and this is currently in source selection with the Air Force.”
A Bagram-based U.S. Army aviation support unit is slated July 2 to host Afghan helicopter mechanics to share aircraft repair methods and safety standards, marking their second visit after kicking off a joint training partnership earlier this month. If and when U.S. Army aviators — and their support teams — leave Afghanistan, Afghan forces will have to fly and maintain helicopters on their own, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade hopes to kick off a collaboration that will lead the Afghans to greater maintenance self-sufficiency.
James Albaugh, a 37-year veteran at Boeing who has been a management leader in all of the company’s product markets—space, defense and airliners—on Oct. 1 will retire as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). Boeing Chairman and CEO James McNerney has named Raymond Conner, another company veteran, to succeed Albaugh. Conner, who is an executive VP, joined Boeing 34 years ago as a mechanic and currently heads the company’s global sales operations.
