South Korea may move quickly to order the Lockheed Martin F-35 for its derailed F-X Phase 3 competition for 60 fighters—and yet again, it may not. In a program that has become chaotic and unpredictable even by the standards of fighter acquisitions, a range of outcomes is in the offing.
The B-52H crew were trying to thread a needle through an invisible point in the sky to hit the correct launch conditions for the test flight of the X-51A Waverider hypersonic demonstrator.
Hundreds of applications for aircraft operations and repair stations are held up, stymied by the FAA's inefficient certification processes, a government watchdog finds. FAA is juggling 1,029 such applications, Jeffrey Guzzetti of the Transportation Department's Inspector General's office, recently told Congress. The situation is so bad, one applicant has been in limbo since August 2006. And it is about to get worse, as requests from NextGen technologies and unmanned aircraft flow into the system.
The most conspicuous exhibits at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) show in Washington in late October were a pervasive sense of unreality and a newfound Army paranoia that rivals that of the Marine Corps.
LONDON — The Netherlands is to deploy four Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to Mali at the request of the United Nations, The Hague has announced. The deployment, on behalf of the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, will begin at the end of this year and will tentatively end in 2015, according to the Netherlands defense ministry.
As part of its recent analysis of the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding plans, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has envisioned a fleet size much different than what the service foresees. “CBO’s estimate of $21.2 billion per year for the full cost of the Navy’s 2014 shipbuilding plan is 34% higher than the $15.8 billion the Navy has spent on average per year for all items in its shipbuilding accounts over the past 30 years,” the report notes.
Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy are targeting the end of 2014 to have the extended-endurance MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned aircraft ready for deployment on a DDG-51 Burke-class destroyer, to support special-warfare units operating under Africa Command. A modified Bell 407 light commercial helicopter, the MQ-8C, made its first flights from NAS Point Mugu, Calif., on Oct. 31, barely 18 months after the award of the $154 million rapid development contract.
LONDON — Air forces from across Latin America and the U.S. and Canada are deploying to Brazil for the region’s largest military exercises. Some 96 combat and support aircraft from nine countries are arriving at Natal airbase on Brazil’s eastern coast for Exercise Cruzex Flight 2013, running from Nov. 4-15.
TEL AVIV — The U.S. plans to fast-track the delivery of six V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft to Israel, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says. The Pentagon will reallocate part of the next production group originally destined for the U.S. Marine Corps to meet the Israeli request for six aircraft. The V-22 is produced under a multi-year procurement, with the fiscal 2014 budget plan funding the production of 18 USMC Ospreys and three for the Air Force Special Operations Command.
As the U.S. Navy continues to hone its submarine payload delivery systems, the service is searching for unmanned systems to deploy from those boats, including submerged and aerial vehicles. Recent research and development tests have combined submarines with unmanned undersea vehicles used for the oil and gas industry, such as the Lockheed Martin Marlin.
Embraer’s defense and security business grew to more than 20% of the company’s net revenues in the third quarter, as continued market growth coincided with a decrease in commercial aircraft deliveries. Formed in 2010, the Brazilian manufacturer’s Defense & Security segment had net revenues of $266.8 million in the third quarter, up from $256.6 million a year earlier. This was 20.7% of the company’s total net revenues for the quarter.
SEOUL — South Korea may move quickly to order the Lockheed Martin F-35 for its derailed F-X Phase 3 competition for 60 fighters – and then again it may not. In a program that has become chaotic and unpredictable even by the standards of fighter acquisitions, a range of very different outcomes is in the offing.
U.S. Marines recently field-tested a wearable solar-powered system to extend the battery life of crucial electronic devices during a recent field exercise, Navy officials say. Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and assembled at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, the Marine Austere Patrolling System (MAPS) combines solar power and an individual water purifier to help lighten the load of Marines conducting lengthy missions in remote locations with few or no options for resupply, Navy officials say.
SLOW START: The second so-called super committee of congressmen and senators set up to find a way out of the almost quarterly budget wars in Congress gathered publicly Oct. 30 to read prepared statements, and then adjourned until Nov. 13. House and Senate Budget Chairs Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), respectively, are now aiming simply for a bicameral spending blueprint for fiscal 2014, which started Oct.
SEOUL — Curtiss-Wright Controls is working to turn South Korea from a customer to a supplier, exploiting the progress local manufacturers have made in gaining technology. Perhaps the most prominent opportunity is in actuation, the equipment that, for example, moves flight control surfaces, says Curtiss-Wright Controls Vice President Christopher Thomson. “South Korea has been a good market, growing faster than our other segments,” says Curtiss-Wright’s Tom Quinly. “We want to take it to another level.”
Defense analysts and U.S. Navy officials say further fleet reductions of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) are impossible if the nation is to meet its stated nuclear deterrence requirements. “The number of boats you need is not necessarily related to the number of warheads, but geography,” says Ronald O’Rourke, naval specialist at the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The Pentagon Inspector General (IG) says the U.S. Naval Air Forces needs to do a better job reporting mission capability rates and readiness for its MV-22 squadrons. “From fiscal 2009 through fiscal 2011, MV-22 squadron commanders computed the Naval Aviation Maintenance Program MCR (mission capability rates) for five of the six squadrons using erroneous aircraft inventory reports and work orders,” the IG says in the executive summary of its report, released Oct. 23. The full report is classified.
LONDON — Norway will decide next week whether the AgustaWestland AW101 or the Eurocopter EC725 will become the country’s next long-range search-and-rescue helicopter. A decision on the Norwegian All-Weather Search and Rescue Helicopter (NAWSARH) program is expected on Nov. 8, and is set to come after the two European manufacturers were downselected by the country’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security — the government department running the program — back in July. Both companies delivered their final offers to the department in early October.
