Defense

The U.S. Navy is laying the groundwork for joint-service, international alternatives for both large, manned aircraft and smaller unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) designs.

As Western aerospace and defense (A&D) companies flood into Latin America to establish ties to help them win military business, local firms have to decide what long-term gains they might garner from the arrangements. For Embraer—the region's industrial heavyweight—the goal is clear. It is interested in gaining access to new markets and securing development work that can boost its industrial capacities. This is especially true in Brazil's biggest defense project involving foreign suppliers, the F-X2 fighter program.

In Japan, it was last year's earthquake and tsunami; manufacturers worldwide are still recovering. In the U.S., a swarm of tornadoes ripping across Kansas—and striking Spirit AeroSystems—brought another reminder of just how vulnerable and vastly inter-connected the aviation's supply chain is to natural disasters.

The U.S. Navy has apparently found a way to reduce some of the early risk and cost for its Air and Missile Defense Radar.

The USAF is taking the first steps toward a real capability as plans for a truly reusable, quick-response launch system come together.

Investors seem to believe that Textron Inc.'s darkest days are behind it. The share price of the 89-year-old parent company of Cessna Aircraft, Bell Helicopter and Textron Systems rose more than 50% during the first quarter of 2012. And while the stock has declined a bit in April, it has recovered from a slump that began a year ago, when it became apparent that a rebound in the lower end of the business jet market was further off than anticipated.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Saab soon will display its Saab 340 Maritime Security Aircraft (MSA), a new variant that aims to create a market for second-hand Saab 340Bs.

When Eurocopter inaugurates its new final assembly line in Brazil at its Helibras facility, it will signify how much Western aerospace companies are banking on the Latin market's potential.

Old planes, overloaded links and shrinking budgets begin to erode Pentagon capabilities.

FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — During this quarter, the first DDG-1000 Zumwalt destroyer should start look even more like the new U.S. Navy warship it is planned to be, as contractors prepare to marry the vessel’s composite hangar with its hull.

Brazil is unusual among top-rated emerging markets because it can support manufacturing, services and natural resource development simultaneously. This is due, in part, to its low external and public debt, low unemployment, an enviable 90% literacy rate, expanding capital markets and declining poverty. And to top it off, the country is self-sufficient in water, food and energy. Brazil recently passed the U.K. to become the world's sixth-largest economy. By 2040, Goldman Sachs expects it to be fourth behind China, the U.S. and India.

Now it is official. Amid mounting evidence that China is serious about curing its weakness in engine technology, Avic says its highest priority in the coming years will be propulsion. The group has set a budget of 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) for aero-engine work over five years, though that figure is probably only a fraction of actual spending.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The industrial cooperation package that manufacturers can offer Malaysia appears to be the key to winning government support in the country, which has a competition under way for the purchase of 18 fighters.

Brazil's new entrants in aviation design and manufacturing are specializing in niche markets for domestic consumption and are receiving support from industry, academia and government agencies.

The Brazilian air force's requirement that KC-390 tanker/transports serve civil and military markets is underscoring prime contractor Embraer's approach to the airplane's product strategy.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Boeing’s UAV subsidiary Insitu has secured a contract to supply its ScanEagle UAV to Malaysia, for help in monitoring territory off the north coast of the state of Sabah. Malaysian company Unmanned Systems Technology (UST), a subsidiary of Malaysian composites parts manufacturer CTRM, has a government contract to provide UAV surveillance covering sections of land and sea in and around Sabah. At the Defense Services Asia (DSA) exhibition in Kuala Lumpur this week, UST signed a contract with Insitu.

Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Unfortunately, there are too many followers in today's defense industry.

Gone are the days when Brazil's munitions makers were content with building bullets and projectiles. And as the arms industry's technical expertise grows, more complex precision-weapon projects are under way. The first wave of such initiatives is due to come to fruition in the next two years, with industry poised to then tackle the thornier challenges of developing and building sophisticated cruise missiles, air defenses or long-range air-to-air missiles.

BEIJING — South Korea has announced the deployment of two types of surface-to-surface weapons, one a cruise missile and the other ballistic. The Tomahawk-like cruise missile, which must be the previously reported Hyunmu 3C, has world-class precision, good enough to fly through a window, says Maj. Gen. Shin Won-sik, director general of planning at the defense ministry, who did not name either weapon. Its range is 1,500 km (930 mi.), he says.

For a self-professed naval power, the U.K. has seen surprisingly large gaps develop in its maritime surveillance capability in recent years, a trend the Defense Ministry is setting out to reverse.

“We want to rebuild the general aviation manufacturing industry in Brazil.” Novaer Craft CEO Graciliano Campos confidently announces this bold ambition and, given the large existing global supplier list, it sounds fanciful. But Embraer' success suggests it would be a mistake to write off another startup in this sector. Brazil still has many makers of experimental and light aircraft, but production of certified, piston- and turbine-powered single- and twin-engine aircraft ceased in the 1980s.

KUALA LUMPUR — Eurocopter aims to deliver the first of 12 EC-725 tactical transport helicopters ordered by the Malaysian air force by the end of the year. Training starts in July, Eurocopter Malaysia President Pierre Rossignol tells Aviation Week on the sidelines of the Defense Services Asia exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. He also says an EC-225/725 training simulator will be coming to Malaysia and will be stationed here.

One extra benefit will be the targeting problem posed for adversaries.

FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — As the U.S. Navy redoubles its efforts to make maintenance a major priority across the fleet, the service is taking great pains to clean up the tanks and voids in its surface vessels — with special focus on destroyers and cruisers, which have often had to defer shipboard work because of smaller crews.

FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — The budget plan to delay the purchase of one Virginia class submarine from fiscal 2014 to 2018 is a retreat in the program’s progress in bringing down unit costs, according to the manager for the U.S. Navy program. The cost hit from the delay has not been totaled, says Rear Adm. Michael Jabaley, because the Block IV 2014-18 contract has not been awarded, but unit cost on a single sub in 2014 would necessarily go up, since overhead costs would remain relatively constant.