The Pentagon's newly signed deals for two lots of F-35s codifies for the first time that it will cost the U.S. Air Force less than $100 million per airframe for the single-engine, stealthy aircraft. The cost for all the aircraft in low-rate initial-production (LRIP) Lots 6 and 7 will be $8.4 billion. Prime contractor Lockheed Martin has delivered the first two of 32 aircraft in LRIP 5.
With its first Airbus A400M Atlas handed over, attention is now being focused on how the French air force will put the new European airlifter through its paces.
The U.K. Royal Air Force has retired the last of its vintage Vickers VC10 aerial refueling tankers, which opens an unlikely capability gap. For almost 50 years, the VC10 provided strategic transport, airlift and an aeromedical capacity. In the 1980s, with the arrival of several secondhand ex-airline VC10s, the role was extended to provide air-to-air refueling, a capability for which the type became best-known. Of the 54 VC10s produced by Vickers, the RAF operated 28, in four different versions.
Now that the Air Force has placed the A-10 Thunderbolt II under consideration for cuts in a worst-case budget scenario, a grassroots movement is building to keep the aircraft, flying since 1977, around longer. The A-10 is not one of those programs, like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or the KC-46A tanker, that the service wants to protect. In fact, a chart from Air Combat Command shows the entire fleet of close-air support aircraft may be divested by 2015.
Four teams competing to build advanced-rotorcraft demonstrators for the U.S. Army have each been awarded $6.5 million of government funding toward completing preliminary design of their aircraft, the service reveals—but only two teams will be selected to flight-test their designs.
As the nation continues its Afghanistan withdrawal, the U.S. Defense Department is focusing its efforts on the logistics of retrieving equipment, successful counternarcotics operations and ensuring proper contracting procedures, a recent Pentagon report says. “Along with the withdrawal of military personnel is the complex withdrawal of DoD (Defense Department) equipment,” the Pentagon says in its report, “Fiscal Year 2014 Comprehensive Oversight Plan for Southwest Asia,” released Sept. 30 by the Pentagon’s Inspector General.
The U.S. pivot to the Pacific advanced this week with a security agreement between the U.S. and Japan that will bring U.S. Global Hawk UAVs, MV-22 Ospreys and, eventually, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Japan. Along with that, the two governments pledged to continue and in some cases expand their cooperation on space, cyberspace and missile defense, announcing that a second AN/TPY-2 radar system would be housed at the Air Self-Defense Force base at Kyogamisaki.
Thousands of aerospace workers could find themselves temporarily out of work if the U.S. government shutdown continues. Sikorsky Aircraft, which produces the UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter, plans to furlough 2,000 workers at three plants on Oct. 7 due to the absence of Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) inspectors who audit and approve the manufacturing of military products. Sikorsky parent United Technologies warns that another 2,000 workers could be furloughed from its Pratt & Whitney and Aerospace units.
NAVAL RESEARCH: The non-profit Center for the Advancement of Science in Space has awarded the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) a $250,000 grant to use the International Space Station’s hyperspectral imager to study halmful algal bloom in coastal areas around the world. Also known as red tide, the algal bloom releases toxins that are harmful to humans and marine life.
NEW DELHI — AgustaWestland has invoked its contractual right to arbitration over the bribery scandal that tainted its sale of AW101 helicopters to India for VIP transport. India has suspended payments on the €560 million ($762.91 million) contract to buy 12 AW101s and has threatened to cancel the purchase of the helicopters if the charges of bribery to middlemen both in India and abroad are proven. AgustaWestland asserts such a move would violate the terms of the 2010 contract.
Teams are forming bids for a long-anticipated program to provide the Australian Defense Force with a new fixed-wing pilot training system. Lockheed Martin has teamed with Pilatus Aircraft, supported by Hawker Pacific, to offer the PC-21 turboprop trainer for Project AIR 5428. BAE Systems has already teamed with Beechcraft to offer the T-6C turboprop.
NEW DELHI — India’s defense research agency is preparing to test, for the first time, a high-altitude interceptor missile in November, a senior scientist says. The exo-atmospheric test is “part of the developmental trials” for the first phase of India’s ballistic missile defense (BMD) system, an official at the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) says. “Critical simulation tests” are under way to prepare for the flight. “The major trial will be held in the last week of November,” the DRDO official says.
TEL AVIV — The U.S.-Russian initiative to disarm Syria of its chemical weapons will be an enormous challenge, and the prospects for accomplishing it are doubtful, experts contend. Each step of the process, from finding all of the weapons to transporting them and then eventual disposal, will be fraught with risk.
As the U.S. government resigns itself to the prospect of long-term sequestration budget cuts, the Defense Department could consider lifting its ban on prime U.S. contractors acquiring each other, according to Exelis CEO David Melcher. “I don’t see the department … standing in the way of consolidation,” Melcher said Oct. 2 at an Atlantic Council lecture on the defense business in an age of austerity.
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Aviation unit failed to obtain best value when it purchased sole-source spare parts from Boeing, the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) says in a recently released report.
The U.S. Navy successfully completed nine guided flight tests for the Long Range Land Attack Projectile (Lrlap) 155mm rocket-assisted guided projectile system, Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) announced late last month. All nine tests were accurately guided to their targets about 45 nm from the launch site, Navsea says. Lrlap functionality was proven through gun launch, rocket motor ignition, guidance acquisition, navigation to target and warhead detonation.
STILL SPENDING: A U.S. government shutdown and debt ceiling fight on Capitol Hill notwithstanding, nominal federal spending plans for fiscal 2014 and beyond entail $117 billion in defense information technology (IT) contracting opportunities, according to federal IT consulting company Deltek. Another $38 billion will come from civilian agencies like NASA, FAA and others. Furthermore, despite a common industry complaint that budget caps in recent years have essentially derailed new-start programs, that is not the case. Deltek said in a webinar to clients Oct.
Karem Aircraft is to design a tiltrotor to meet U.S. Army future utility-rotorcraft requirements under one of four contracts awarded for Phase 1 of the Joint Multi Role technology demonstration (JMR TD). JMR is a precursor to the Army’s planned Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Medium program to replace first the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter and later the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, beginning in the mid-2030s.
As the U.S. kicked off a set of regional joint maritime exercises this month with the South Korean navy, U.S. military officials there warned of the need to develop and hone ballistic missile defense, asymmetric tactics and other military capabilities in the wake of continuing escalation by North Korea.
The current acquisition strategy for the U.S. Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) program is too risky, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). In fiscal year 2014, the Navy plans to commit to investing an estimated $3.7 billion to develop, build, and field from six to 24 aircraft as an initial increment for Uclass, one of its most important aviation programs.
NEW DELHI — India has agreed to remove all hurdles to expanded weapons sales from the U.S., with plans to expedite licensing and approvals for what has become a nearly $9 billion defense trade between the two countries.
