SINGAPORE — Japan’s government has appointed Satoshi Morimoto as defense minister, the first time since World War II that a Japanese defense minister has not been a member of parliament. Morimoto is Japan’s third defense minister in recent months. His immediate predecessor was Naoki Tanaka, who served from January to June. Before Tanaka, Yasuo Ichikawa held the post from September 2011 to January 2012. Tanaka and Ichikawa were both ousted following pressure from the opposition party.
The financial belt-tightening is only going to get worse with the demands for U.S. Navy likely to grow greater, warns Adm. J.C. Harvey, Jr., commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. But the past may hold some lessons learned. “We [are] headed for permanent white water; that is, an environment in which our overall defense budget would very likely decrease, while our costs to own and operate the fleet [increase],” Harvey says in a blog from earlier this month.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s proposed fleet plan could still cost far more than the service anticipates, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. The Coast Guard completed a two-phased Fleet Mix Analysis that intended to eliminate uncertainty surrounding the future mission performance of the service’s fleet and produce a baseline for the acquisition of a majority of its assets, the GAO notes in a May 31 report.
LOSING LUSTER: The global airborne anti-submarine warfare (ASW) sensor market is due for a dip, according to consultancy Forecast International. The market has a projected worth of $429.42 million in 2012, but then drops in value to $238.85 million in 2016 — a roughly 44.37% ($190.57 million) drop, according to a new study that examines 50 of the leading airborne ASW sensor programs around the world.
With news reports saying that defense companies will begin issuing layoffs related to potential military budget cuts before the November presidential election, Republican senators interested in defense are building a legislative case for preventing them. If Congress fails to reach a deal to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion, then in January 2013 cuts of the same amount will be applied to the entire federal budget — with about half targeted at the Pentagon.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is investing in research that could make its submarines even stealthier, using cloaking technology that seems to come straight out of a Tom Clancy thriller or Star Trek script. Developed by New York-based Weidlinger Associates with U.S. Navy Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding, the technology involves the carving up and altering of aluminum to give it “elastic properties” — a form of what the company calls “metal water,” according to Jeffrey Cipolla, a Weidlinger senior associate.
A new report attempting to cut through the persistent vagueness and wide variation in U.S. nuclear weapons spending estimates has arrived at a figure of at least $30 billion spent annually. The study, “Resolving Ambiguity: Costing Nuclear Weapons,” was released June 5 by the Stimson Center’s Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense project. Russell Rumbaugh says he and co-author Nathan Cohn hope the report’s methodology and data granularity can set a starting point for budget and policy discussions about U.S. nuclear weapons spending.
SINGAPORE — As Japan seeks to become an exporter of military aircraft, the government is careful to stress that its equipment should be used only for peaceful missions.
SINGAPORE — New Zealand’s air force plans to lease five used Beechcraft KingAir 200 aircraft from Australian company Hawker Pacific to replace five KingAir 200s it currently leases from another company. “We are currently in negotiations with Hawker Pacific to conclude a contract to lease five secondhand KingAir 200s to replace the fleet currently leased from Aeromotive,” New Zealand’s air force chief, Air Vice Marshal Peter Stockwell, says in an emailed response to a query from Aviation Week.
ARAB SUMMER: With the Egyptian presidential election close at hand, U.S. experts on the region see an opportunity to redefine the diplomatic relationship but are divided about what that means for the relationship with the Egyptian military — long a source of stability in the Middle Eastern center of influence. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has extended billions in military aid to Egypt. Frank Wisner, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, told the Center for American Progress on June 5 that the Egyptian military will remain critical to U.S. relations there.
The protracted pace of the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to replace aging firefighting air tankers is expected to come under renewed scrutiny following two accidents on June 3. Both events, one of which was fatal, involved Lockheed P2V Neptunes engaged in fighting wildfires in the Western U.S. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the loss of a 1962-built Neptune Aviation Services P2V while tackling a blaze in the Hamblin Valley area of western Idaho close to the Nevada border.
Beacons enabling autonomous aircraft to deliver cargo with greater accuracy, particularly at night and in poor weather, are to be deployed to Afghanistan, where two Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned helicopters are resupplying U.S. Marine Corps remote forward bases. The K-Max conducted precision autonomous cargo drops using the electro-optical navigation beacon to guide the aircraft in April under a U.S. Army technology demonstration.
The State Department is wrestling with how to refresh a treaty that has governed peace in Europe since 1992. The Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) that limits the number of conventional weapons that can be deployed on the continent was signed in 1990, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But participation in the treaty has gradually eroded. Russia suspended its implementation in 2007. By late 2011, the U.S. and 21 NATO allies ceased carrying out their CFE obligations with respect to Russia.
NEW DELHI — Pakistan on June 5 successfully test-fired a multi-tube, indigenously developed, nuclear-capable cruise missile, the Hatf-VII (or Babur), which has a range of 700 km (435 mi.). “[The] Babur cruise missile is a low-flying, terrain-hugging missile with high maneuverability, pinpoint accuracy and radar-avoidance features,” a Pakistan defense ministry official says. “The missile can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads and has stealth capabilities.” This was the fifth missile test by Pakistan since late April.
SINGAPORE — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says he intends to visit China and is keen to discuss space- and cyberspace-related issues. “We must establish and reinforce agreed principles in space and cyberspace,” he says. He plans to visit China later this year, at the invitation of the Chinese government.
ARLINGTON, Va. — While the U.S. Navy embraces big-picture technological breakthroughs, the service also is looking for companies to help Navy programs make smaller technology strides, says Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, the chief of naval research. “Everyone wants to hit the home-run ball,” Klunder said June 4 during his keynote luncheon speech at the annual 2012 Navy Opportunity Forum in Arlington, Va.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing plans to open up the performance envelope of the Phantom Eye UAV following a successful first flight of the hydrogen-powered demonstrator at Edwards AFB, Calif., on June 1. The 150-ft.-span vehicle completed a 28-min. flight after lifting off at 6.22 a.m. PDT from the desert base using a specially designed launch cart. The aircraft climbed to 4,080 ft. and a speed of 62 kt. Boeing says that after returning to land, the vehicle “sustained some damage when the landing gear dug into the lakebed and broke.”
SINGAPORE — U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is downplaying the prospect of so-called “sequestration” cuts to the Pentagon’s budget. “Sequester is not a real crisis, but an artificial crisis,” Panetta says, adding that Congress deliberately “put a gun to its head” with the Budget Control Act, which forces across-the-board spending cuts if lawmakers fail to make sufficient progress in reducing the U.S. federal budget deficit.
RISING SUN: The U.S. and Japan are working on new areas of defense cooperation, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “The U.S.-Japan alliance will remain one of the corne rstones of regional peace,” and the two countries are enhancing their ability to cooperate militarily, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told delegates June 2 at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue here.
