Here is one simple lesson to be gleaned from Aviation Week's Top-Performing Companies (TPC Study): avoid overconfidence. History shows that a first-place finish is no guarantee of long-term success. Conversely, even consistently strong performers have a bad year every now and then.
The results of Aviation Week’s 2012 Top-Performing Companies (TPC) study are providing fresh evidence that downturns in U.S. and European defense spending are starting to hit contractors. BAE Systems, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon all saw their TPC scores decline from last year. And the strong gains in operational efficiency made by defense primes during the past decade are showing tentative signs of weakening.
The Australian government will buy 10 Alenia Aermacchi/L-3 Communications C-27Js to meet its tactical transport needs. An item in The World (May 14, p. 15) incorrectly identified one of the contractors.
In observance of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish an issue on May 29. The next issue will be dated May 30. Subscribers to the Aviation Week Intelligence Network can visit www.aviationweek.com/awin for continuous news updates.
To see more details about the Medal of Honor aviators, plus photographs of them and video footage from the conflicts in which they served, go to AviationWeek.com/medalofhonor or your digital edition of AW&ST on an iPad. By the time Joe Jackson volunteered for duty in Vietnam at the age of 45, he already was a combat veteran. He had flown 107 sorties during the Korean War as a Republic F-84 pilot, and later was chosen to fly Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance missions.
The first Tupolev Tu-214R twinjet reconnaissance aircraft is now in flight trials. This aircraft, made at the Kazan-based KAPO facility, a subsidiary of Russia's United Aircraft Corp. (UAC), is the first of two airplanes ordered by the Russian defense ministry in 2002. Under this contract, both aircraft should have been delivered in 2008, but according to KAPO's annual report for 2011, delivery of the first Tu-214R has been s postponed until 2013. The second Tu-214R is on the final assembly line, with delivery expected in 2014.
The Senate Armed Services Committee on May 24 passed a defense policy bill authorizing the Pentagon to spend $631.4 billion in fiscal 2013 that follows the House in putting a hold on the U.S. Air Force’s plans to scale back the Air National Guard. “We rejected the Air Force plan, and fully funded the equipment and personnel,” committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told reporters in a press conference after the committee voted unanimously to approve the legislation.
After months of bedeviling technical challenges and scaling back the scope of work on the Blue Devil II airship project, the U.S. Air Force has finally shot the program down. The service has notified prime contractor MAV6 — a fledgling company managed by two retired general officers — that it must cease work on the program owing to poor performance. Originally envisioned for quick deployment to Afghanistan in February, 18 months after contract award, the program had yet to reach first flight.
U.S. officials are voicing worries about the involvement of Chinese civilian telecommunications companies in military and information warfare programs. Congress has questioned the relationship between Huawei Technologies — which has twice been blocked from buying into U.S. telecommunications companies — and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the ministry of state security.
MOSCOW — The first Tupolev Tu-214R reconnaissance aircraft is now in flight trials. The aircraft has been spotted at the Kazan-based KAPO facility, a subsidiary of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).
BMD SLUMP: The ballistic missile defense market, which earned revenues of $9.45 billion in 2010, is expected to drop over the next few years, reaching $8.44 billion in 2016, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan. The market is expected to recover by 2020, the group says. “Procurement is now focused on improved ‘kill packages,’ radar modifications, and improved missiles,” Frost & Sullivan analyst Wayne Plucker says. “In general, the market is moving closer to a sustainment model, but true sustainment can be achieved only after the next six to seven years.”
U.S. Navy officials say they remain committed to deploying the first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1), the USS Freedom, to Singapore as a warship. But at the same time, service officials and other government supporters of the vessel say it should really be viewed as an R&D prototype shedding light on what design changes will be needed for the rest of the class.
NEW DELHI — India has finally signed a contract to buy a fleet of 75 Swiss Pilatus PC-7 MK II turboprop aircraft to conduct initial training for its air force pilots. The contract, which is worth more than 500 million Swiss francs ($520 million) also includes an integrated, ground-based training system and a comprehensive logistics support package.
The loitering munition market kicked into high gear last year with the award in September of an initial $4.9 million Army order for AeroVironment Switchblade tube-launched lethal small UASs.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) is zeroing in on an advanced engine technology program to ensure that it is not used to resurrect the “second” engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that Congress killed last year.
The defense industry supply chain is rife with counterfeit parts and efforts to police them are failing, increasing the risk that such parts could compromise the quality of U.S.-made defense systems, or even offer back doors to cybersnoops, escalating the threat of espionage and intellectual theft.
If the House was displeased by the U.S. Air Force’s plan to scale back the Air National Guard, the Senate is equally annoyed. In fact, one of the top senators on National Guard matters is bothered by the lack of analysis provided by the Air Force to support its Air Guard budget decisions. A May 23 hearing of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee allowed Guard officials to vent as much as they could publicly about how the active duty Air Force overrode their suggestions on how to trim the budget.
The primary task of the joint Air-Sea Battle concept is “getting shooters to the fight in whatever dimension” they operate, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Norman Schwartz says.
LONDON — BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Babcock have received a £350 million ($553 million) contract from the U.K. Defense Ministry to press ahead with development of a new nuclear-powered submarine armed with Trident ballistic missiles. London expects the contract to allow the first submarine to replace the Vanguard class to be delivered in 2028. A final decision on building it is not expected to be taken until 2016.
