The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee approved legislation this month urging intelligence agencies to relax resolution limits on commercial radar and electro-optical satellite imagery after U.S. companies requested the move. In a Nov. 13 report accompanying passage of its version of the 2014 Intelligence Authorization Act (S 1681), the committee said it is concerned that commercial imagery providers outside the U.S., notably EADS Astrium Services, may soon be able to provide satellite imagery sharper than the currently allowed U.S. limit of 50 cm.
Quality continues to be a problem for delivered ships in key U.S. Navy shipbuilding programs and the service needs to improve the way it tracks, finds and corrects issues, a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. “The Navy expects to spend about $15 billion per year to provide its fleet with the most advanced ships to support national defense and military strategies,” GAO says in a recent report. “Problems with recently delivered ships have focused attention on quality issues.”
NEW DELHI — AgustaWestland has decided to proceed with arbitration over the scandal-plagued sale of 12 AW101 helicopters to India for VIP transport, even as the Indian Defense Ministry continues to discount the threat as it moves to terminate the award, saying “these proceedings are not applicable on the breach of the pre-contract integrity pact.”
Lockheed Martin is proposing to take retired U.S. Navy S-3 Vikings out of desert storage and refurbish and refit them with a new, larger fuselage suited to the cargo role to meet the Navy’s emerging requirement to renew its carrier onboard delivery (COD) fleet. Northrop Grumman is already proposing to remanufacture the Navy’s existing C-2 Greyhound COD aircraft, while Bell Boeing is offering new V-22 Osprey tiltrotors.
LASER POINTERS: The U.S. Air Force Research laboratory is seeking ideas for laser systems that could be used on a post-2030 future air dominance platform. Information is being sought on low-power lasers for sensing, targeting and defeating sensors; medium power for self-protection; and high power for laser weapons. ARFL is interested in systems that could be demonstrated on a technology readiness level of 5 (basic prototype in a relevant environment) by 2022.
Uncle Sam’s sequestration could be about to accomplish what no nascent Chinese or Russian anti-satellite capability can do yet: put U.S. space capability on the verge of flaming out. That is one of the emerging conclusions of an extraordinary industrial base assessment by the Commerce Department, shared recently with Aviation Week.
The U.S. Air Force’s Operationally Responsive Space-3 (ORS-3) demonstration mission lifted off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Nov. 19, placing the Space Test Program Satellite 3 (STPSat-3) primary payload and 28 cubesats into orbit.
Debate on the Senate’s version of the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill is underway, and lawmakers are considering a long list of amendments, including one that proposes to limit the retirement of the A-10 Thunderbolt. The amendment, sponsored by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), would prevent the Air Force from retiring or placing the A-10 in storage until the F-35A is fully operational — a milestone that Air Force Chief of Staff Mark Welsh has said he hopes will happen in 2021.
Republican defense hawks in the U.S. Senate are proposing a major change to the 2011 Budget Control Act — an overhaul of its mechanism of automatic annual cuts known as sequestration —in what could be an early test of pro-Pentagon sentiment under nascent efforts to find a way out of Washington’s budget quagmire.
CYBERSECURITY RULE: Following high-profile cyber-pilfering of some U.S. weapons and defense data, the Pentagon has published a new rule that requires defense contractors to buttress cybersecurity in their unclassified networks. “We cannot continue to give our potential adversaries the benefits in time and money they obtain by stealing this type of information,” Pentagon acquisition czar Frank Kendall said Nov. 19. He said the new rule is just one of many “significant” follow-on actions after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel issued a memorandum Oct.
After years of exercises preparing for such an event, the U.S. Navy is making good on its promise to provide aircraft, ships and other assets to help a partner in the Asia-Pacific region survive a major natural catastrophe.
DUBAI — Boeing and Sikorsky have formed Boeing Sikorsky International Services (BSIS), a joint venture to support Saudi Arabia’s military helicopter fleet. BSIS was launched at June’s Paris air show, with each partner holding a 50% share. It is providing logistics, supply chain management, maintenance, aircraft support and aircrew and maintenance staff training for Saudi Arabia’s growing fleet of helicopters purchased under the Foreign Military Sales program, and those that are already in service.
DUBAI — Boeing is beginning work in Saudi Arabia to convert the country’s existing F-15S Strike Eagles into new-generation F-15SAs. The first modification kits for the conversion have arrived at the Al-Salam Aircraft Company in Riyadh, Boeing’s partner on the conversion program, while three of the new-build F-15SAs are now conducting test flights in the U.S.
PARIS — European nations have agreed to create common standards for developing medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and to establish a community of European drone users that could support development of remotely piloted vehicles that could compete with U.S. and Israeli technology in the 2020-25 time frame.
DUBAI — Raytheon’s Talon guided rocket system looks set to re-emerge as a weapon option for the UAE armed forces, with the signing of a new deal with UAE aerospace firm Tawazun. Under the new agreement, signed at the Dubai air show on Nov. 19, Tawazun will integrate the weapon into the UAE armed forces’ existing rocket systems and deliver a training program.
A BQM-74 aerial target drone crashed into the guided-missile cruiser CG-62 USS Chancellorsville during a Nov. 16 radar tracking exercise, Navy officials say. The Chancellorsville recently was outfitted with the Advanced Capabilities Baseline (ACB-12) Aegis Combat System upgrade. The tracking exercise that led to the mishap was part of the ship’s Combat System Ship Qualification Trials (CSSQT), Navy officials say. CSSQT provides the opportunity to test and validate the ship’s combat and weapon systems performance, officials note.
The Italian air force (AMI) is planning to send an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance-capable Alenia C-27J Spartan tactical airlifter to Afghanistan to support the final months of Italian operations in the west of the country. The C-27J will be modified with a command-and-control mission system in the rear of the aircraft and an under-nose electro-optical system to support ground operations in theater.
The U.S. Air Force could cut up to 24 F-35As from its five-year spending plan if sequestration takes full effect in the coming years, Acting Air Force Secretary Eric Fanning says.
DUBAI — The British government’s efforts to help broker a deal to supply Typhoon fighters to the United Arab Emirates extend far beyond the Dubai air show. Changes to visa requirements and support for Dubai’s Expo 2020 bid form part of a comprehensive campaign to deepen defense ties between the Gulf state and the U.K.
DUBAI — Small but important orders for both the Hurkus turboprop trainer and the Anka MALE UAV are providing a critical business and confidence boost for Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). Engineers there are preparing to commence the next set of complex programs, including the development of the country’s first indigenous helicopter and potentially fifth-generation combat aircraft to supplement the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters being purchased by the Turkish air force.
SENSITIVE PEOPLE: The U.S. offices of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Director of National Intelligence are “close” to finalizing a rule that could “greatly expand” the number of positions across the federal government deemed sensitive to national security — meaning those with a potentially adverse effect on national security but that do not require a security clearance, according to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
