NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Boeing is preparing to fly an aerodynamic prototype for the MC-12S Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance Surveillance System (EMARSS) — a program the U.S. Army plans to terminate after completing development in 2013. A Boeing-owned Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350ER is at Summit Aviation being modified to the MC-12S external configuration, including extended sensor nose and fuselage-top Ka/Ku-band radome, and is expected to fly in May.
The Dutch defense budget is too tight to achieve the ambitions for the Royal Netherlands Air Force’s (RNLAF) F-16s, the Netherlands Court of Auditors concludes in a report on the fighter replacement effort. Auditors concluded that there is a growing imbalance between the Dutch government’s stated goals, the budget for flying hours, the number of pilots and the number of aircraft.
BOEING DELIVERIES: Boeing defense aircraft deliveries in the first quarter of this year were marked by the rising number of CH-47 Chinook completions, with 10 new-build helicopters handed over, compared to seven in the first quarter of last year and two the year before. A slowdown in C-17 deliveries saw just two aircraft handed over versus three for the previous quarters, while this year also marks the first delivery of a P-8A Poseidon in a first quarter.
The government is already struggling to overcome technical and procedural hurdles to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in civil airspace. Now the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are teaming up to make sure policy makers craft privacy rules for UAVs before they take flight. The two advocacy groups met last week to see where they have common ground.
A sprinter’s speed, reliance on aircraft and unmanned systems, and flexibility to deploy in disparate environments with different U.S. Navy vessels will anchor mission success for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) fleet, according to a copy of the LCS concept of operations (conops) obtained by the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN).
The U.S. Air Force is modifying a request for proposals (RFP) for the botched Light Air Support (LAS) aircraft and plans to release it to industry within the next three weeks, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says. The service originally selected Sierra Nevada/Embraer to build 20 Super Tucanos for use in Afghanistan, over a rival Hawker Beechcraft AT-6-based design. But the $355 million contract was abruptly terminated earlier this year after Hawker Beechcraft filed suit in federal claims court.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Within two years, U.S. Army special forces will be operating more than 300 unmanned aircraft, says Brig. Gen. Kevin Mangum, commander of Army Special Operations Aviation Command (USASOAC). That total will include two companies of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1C Gray Eagle armed, medium-altitude, long-endurance UAVs.
DALLAS — Global military aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) spending was roughly $66 billion in 2011, but is expected to decline 2.7% this year because of reduced utilization and increased budgetary restrictions, according to consultancy ICF SH&E.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. Marine Corps has chosen a classified weapon to arm the AAI RQ-7B Shadow tactical unmanned aerial system (UAS) for a field evaluation in Afghanistan. “The weapon is classified. It’s a high-TRL [technology readiness level] system,” says Lt. Col. Scott Anderson, product manager for Shadow in the Army’s UAS program office, which is supporting the Marine Corps’ plan to weaponize the aircraft to meet an urgent operational need.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sikorsky and the U.S. Army have reached agreement on the eighth multiyear contract for the Black Hawk helicopter — the second for the UH-60M model — with a deal that allows the Army to achieve the projected savings while buying fewer aircraft than originally planned because of budget pressures. “We have a handshake on multiyear eight,” says Col. Thomas Todd, program manager for utility helicopters, speaking April 4 at the Army Aviation Association of America convention here.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Stood up only in October, the program office responsible for all the U.S. Army’s fixed-wing aircraft is awaiting Pentagon approval of its requirements document for a future utility aircraft to replace 117 Hawker Beechcraft C-12s operated in a variety of roles.
NEW DELHI — The Indian navy on April 4 formally commissioned a Russian-built Akula-II-class submarine into its fleet. The submarine — originally the K-152 Nerpa and now renamed INS Chakra-II — is on a 10-year lease from Russia at a cost of nearly $1 billion. This is part of India’s growing effort to modernize its naval forces. INS Chakra is the first nuclear-powered submarine to be operated by the navy in almost two decades.
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office has three more intelligence spacecraft to orbit in the next four months, following Tuesday’s launch of its classified NROL-25 payload — probably an imaging reconnaissance satellite — from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Liftoff of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Medium-plus 5.2 rocket from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-6 came at 7:12 EDT, and the NRO termed the launch “successful.” Launches from the California military site go into polar orbit for global overhead coverage.
NEW DELHI — India has revised its defense offsets policy to allow foreign vendors to use technology transfers to fulfill their offset obligations for Indian defense contracts.
LOS ANGELES — Northrop Grumman’s new Integrated Assembly Line (IAL) is now producing F-35 Joint Strike Fighter center fuselages at a rate of one every five days as the company continues to work toward meeting a target of one per day.
While the Pentagon’s rebalancing of its efforts toward the Asia-Pacific realm, to deal more directly with China, represents an expansion of Defense Department policies, the strategy could pose risk for other areas of concern to the U.S., according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
LONDON — Bidders for Poland’s Advanced Jet Trainer competition will have to wait longer than expected for a restart of the program. The government last year scrapped an ongoing light-fighter/trainer competition, deciding to focus less on the combat aspects and more on the training element of the program. The new competition was due to start this spring.
COST GROWTH: Procurement cost growth in the portfolio of nearly 100 weapons programs analyzed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in its recently released assessment amounts to nearly $61 billion; half of that is from quantity changes. There were 59 programs with no quantity change; 22 increased and 14 decreased. Four programs are new to the 2011 portfolio: Apache Block IIIB New Build; HC/MC-130 Recap; KC-130J and Small Diameter Bomb II (Aerospace DAILY, March 30, April 3).
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Slower-than-expected fielding of unmanned aircraft systems using high-capacity Ku-band data links is leading the U.S. Army to look at broadening the capability of the latest Block 3 version of the Boeing AH-64D Apache. Now wrapping up initial operational test and evaluation, the Block 3 can be equipped with the UAV tactical common data link (TCDL) assembly (UTA), which allows the Apache crew to take control of an unmanned aircraft’s sensors and flight path: so-called Level 3 and 4 control.
LONDON — The U.K. is projecting that the Paveway IV guided bomb will be fielded on the Eurofighter Typhoon in 2013. The new date was released as the Defense Ministry awarded Raytheon a £60 million ($96 million) contract to replenish Paveway IVs expended from Tornado GR4s during last year’s Libya operation. The number of weapons being acquired is not being released.
