LONDON — The U.K. and Japan have committed to a future defense cooperation agreement, although specifics are still scant. The U.K. is aggressively looking for new export markets for its equipment to prop up industry at a time that its own defense spending is in decline. Exactly what programs the two sides may work on remains unspecified. The U.K. notes the agreement was made possible by Japan’s policy change, made late last year, on defense equipment transfers.
LONDON — The government of Saudi Arabia has given the green light to BAE Systems to build another 48 Eurofighter Typhoons even as the two parties continue to work out contractual details associated with changes in the program. The company notes that the contract for final assembly of the additional 48 aircraft — 24 were bought initially — has been signed. In January, the company was still saying the money for the aircraft was allocated, but no contract had been completed.
LONDON — The French government has completed validation of the final elements of its principal anti-air missile system (Paams), with the intercept of a supersonic sea-skimming target. The test was designed to explore the final element of the Paams ship-based air defense system, following previous engagements of air-breathing targets and ballistic missiles.
U.S. Air Force leadership and auditors with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) agree that timely certification and flight testing remain key risk areas in Boeing’s KC-46A tanker program.
AIR FORCE Al Raha Group for Technical Services, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is being awarded a $95,000,000 firm-fixed-price and cost-no-fee contract for third-party logistics services supporting repair and return of F-15 assets for the Royal Saudi Air Forces. This contract includes repair services for 4,500 national stock numbers. The location of the performance is Riyadh. The work is to be completed by Nov. 30, 2013. WR-ALC/GRWKB, Robins AFB, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8505-12-D001). U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND
RELIABLE DELIVERY: Two Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned helicopters supporting the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan have flown some 240 missions and delivered around 600,000 lb. of cargo to remote bases since deploying in December, achieving a high operational tempo. Availability is “near 100%,” Lockheed says, adding that the aircraft have expanded into retrograde operations, picking up cargo at the forward base and bringing it back to the main operating base, and are beginning to fly to different locations.
EXTRA EYES: U.S. Army Boeing AH-64D Apaches will deploy to Afghanistan this year equipped with Radiance Technologies’ WeaponWatch ground-fire acquisition system. The deployment will assess the podded prototype’s ability to detect and locate hostile ground fire, but will also look at use of the system’s six infrared cameras for other purposes, such as augmenting the crew’s situational awareness and the Apache’s targeting sensors, says Col. Shane Openshaw, the Army’s Apache program manager.
Warming of the world’s polar regions could lead to a greater need for U.S. icebreaking ships, especially in the Arctic, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) notes in a recent report about the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaker program. “Although polar ice is diminishing due to climate change, observers generally expect that this development will not eliminate the need for U.S. polar icebreakers, and in some respects might increase mission demands for them,” says CRS in its report released this month.
Despite directives to the contrary, the U.S. Army and Air Force still have been farming out certain “inherently governmental” tasks to contractors, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). In the services’ own reviews of fiscal 2009 contracting, which GAO auditors call “incomplete” because the Navy failed to participate, there were 1,935 instances in the Army and 91 in the Air Force in which contractors were performing inherently governmental functions, according to GAO.
Upgrades for the U.S. Air Force’s B-1 and B-2 bomber forces have passed major milestones with production of a new navigation system beginning for the B-1 and validation of a computer upgrade for the B-2 recently completed. Boeing is acquiring the first navigation system upgrade kits for the B-1 following the award of a $55.3 million production contract to replace the original navigation hardware with a new ring-laser gyro system. Under the 3.5-year contract, Boeing will perform retrofits at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas, and Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, S.D.
AIR FORCE SAIC, McLean, Va., is being awarded a $32,876,384 firm-fixed-price, time-and-material contract to procure the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing (480 ISRW) has a requirement in support of the AF DCGS intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission. The location of the performance is 480 ISRW, Langley Air Force Base, Va. The work is to be completed by May 30, 2014. Air Force Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, San Antonio, is the contracting activity (FA7037-12-F-0062).
The U.S. Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program is spending its old money for now, stretching out technical development and planning for funding that is 10% of what was expected just two budget years ago. The Army alone is funding the joint Army/Navy program, seeking $10 million for fiscal 2013, and only $20 million over the following two fiscal years. In the fiscal 2011 budget request, the Army’s 2013-15 funding plan totaled $303 million. (See chart p. 2.)
As the Pentagon begins a 10-year reduction in its spending plans, its database of the vast network of suppliers that feed its prime contractors is helping spare vulnerable companies. The effort may provide some small measure of reassurance to lawmakers, who are concerned about maintaining high-quality jobs in a presidential election year during a time of high unemployment. The aerospace and defense industries employ more than 1 million people, according to a study conducted by Deloitte for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
NEW DELHI — India’s nuclear-capable, long-range Agni-V missile, with a strike range of more than 5,000 km (3,100 mi.), is scheduled to be tested this month. “The Agni-V will be tested sometime in the middle of April. The exact date has not been fixed, though,” says Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) chief Dr. V.K. Saraswat.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, are scheduled to begin a U.S.-Brazil Defense Cooperation Dialogue on April 24. Their first meeting was part of President Barack Obama’s April 9 meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. As an example of how close the two nations have become, the White House is pointing to the U.S. offer to sell Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets to the Brazilian air force.
NORFOLK, Va. — BAE Systems is looking to leverage its expertise working on U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers to develop relationships in Spain in the wake of the Pentagon’s plans to base four destroyers in Rota. “We’re trying to position ourselves with the Spanish shipyards in the area and with the Navy to execute maintenance on those ships,” says Russell Tjepkema, vice president and general manager of BAE’s Norfolk, Va., ship repair yard.
Boeing's decision to close its Wichita facility by the end of next year may be good for the company's books, but a senior U.S. Air Force official says it adds risk to its ability to execute the KC-46A aerial refueling contract.
The murky world of U.S. electronic warfare and its more esoteric airborne electronic attack (AEA) subset is being overtaken by a new generation of international threats. Cyberweapons and other sophisticated countermeasures can now attack aircraft, ships and ground vehicles through their antennas and sensors.
Along with expanded missions and larger force structures, U.S. Pacific Command has a new chief, Adm. Samuel Locklear, 3rd, who most recently oversaw NATO-led operations in Libya and commanded the U.S. Navy in Europe and Africa. Locklear's new problem set will not be smaller, but it may be significantly different. He will face two daunting issues: China and cyber. Sometimes they will be the same problem and sometimes not.
Operating the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) will force the service to re-evaluate its traditional staffing paradigm, according to the LCS Concept of Operations (conops), which was obtained by the Aviation Week Intelligence Network. “Many existing Navy policies and regulations must be revised to accommodate LCS for various reasons, principally seaframe design and/or minimum manning,” says the current LCS “Platform Wholeness” conops, Revision C, dated September 2009.
