NASHVILLE, Tenn. — EADS North America is bidding to dominate any potential competition for a U.S. Army Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) helicopter by offering not one, but two versions of its AAS-72X. In addition to the baseline aircraft built on the Army’s UH-72A light utility helicopter, a version of the commercial Eurocopter EC145, the company has unveiled a higher-performance AAS-72X+ based on the improved EC145T2 now in development.
Now armed with additional information, the Obama administration and Congress are revisiting whether LightSquared should be able to build its 4G broadband communications network.
NEW DELHI — India’s engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) signed an agreement with French defense products company Nexter Systems March 30 to collaborate on the Indian army’s key artillery gun programs. Under the deal, Nexter Systems will transfer technology for its 155mm 52-caliber Towed Gun System and Mounted Gun System to Larsen. The two companies will work together on subsystem manufacturing, integration and support. Larsen also plans to assemble Nexter’s Caesar and Trajan guns in India.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Rolls-Royce is working on further upgrades to its long-running Model 250 small turboshaft engine series aimed at the U.S. Army Armed Aerial Scout and Navy unmanned aircraft system requirements. The company has provided an upgraded engine to Bell Helicopter to power a company-funded OH-58D Block 2 demonstrator.
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.
The overall CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier program price tag is increasing roughly $2.2 billion — or about 5.5% — to $42.5 billion, the Pentagon estimates in its recent Selected Acquisition Report (SAR). The increase includes an additional $951 million for the application of revised escalation indices and another $811 million for revised estimates on non-recurring engineering, Dual-Band Radar (DBR), and construction performance variance for the Ford carrier, the SAR states.
The Pentagon’s annual cost-growth report to Congress looks better this year: three programs had critical breaches in 2011, but only because budget pressures severely cut their procurement plans.
The U.S. Navy’s proposed future DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program cost is dropping by $1.1 billion — or 1.2% — to roughly $88.4 billion because of multiyear-buy benefits and changes in the radar suite proposed for the Flight III model of the ship, the Pentagon says in its recent Selected Acquisition Report (SAR).
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Rockwell Collins has demonstrated a synthetic-vision display for improved crew situational awareness in military helicopter cockpits. Generated from an onboard digital terrain and obstacle database, the three-dimensional head-down display was incorporated into the company’s Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) for flight tests on a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk. The tests were conducted under a cooperative R&D agreement between the avionics manufacturer and the Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate.
Boeing’s decision to close down its Wichita facility, which was slated to handle military modifications for the KC-46A aerial refueler, has added some uncertainty and risk into the development effort, according to Maj. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, who oversees the U.S. Air Force program.
Click here to view the pdf Cost Growth In Major U.S. Defense Acquisition Programs, 2011 Portfolio (Fiscal 2012 $ in millions) Cost Growth In Major U.S.
NEW DELHI — India’s defense minister has directed the country’s army to restructure its acquisition procedures to improve oversight and speed purchases. On April 2, Defense Minister A.K. Antony met with top army officials led by service chief V.K. Singh to complete various proposals related to acquisition and procurement of equipment for the service.
Airborne electronic attack in the U.S. is being overtaken by a new generation of threats including cyberattack, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Thales is preparing for a three-month flight-test program of its RBE2 radar on Rafale with delivery of the first production version to Dassault. The French military expects to begin fielding the active, electronically scanned array radar next year. Flight testing will involve Rafale C137; the radar is being installed at Dassault’s Merignac facility in southern France. The flight-test campaign will take place at the Istres flight-test center.
Adm. Sir Raymond Lygo, the former chief executive of British Aerospace (now BAE Systems), died March 7. He was 87. The location and cause of death were not available. After retiring in 1978 from a 36-year career in the Royal Navy as a fighter pilot and ship commander, Lygo joined British Aerospace as managing director of its guided-missile manufacturing division. In 1983, he was recognized by Aviation Week & Space Technology for his efforts to promote private enterprise in the defense industry.
Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. is facing a critical shortage of engineers—in aerospace and other industries—and that not enough students are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields to offset this coming shortfall. A corollary to this belief is that U.S. high-school test scores in these critical subjects are low, hampering the country’s future competitiveness. But according to some academics, this conventional wisdom is a fallacy that industry repeats for its own ends.
After more than a decade of study, the Pentagon is finally moving forward with the development of a new, stealthy, long-range bomber. But the catch is a self-imposed cost goal of $550 million per aircraft, which senior Air Force leaders say they recognize as being hard and fast. Given a lackluster record of cost performance for recent Pentagon procurement programs, is it possible that a department so large and so used to spending so much money can rein in its appetite for something as critical—and potentially cutting-edge—as a new bomber?
LIFE-CYCLE SOLUTIONS: Expect to see Rockwell Collins announce renewal of its $17.2 million life-cycle support contract with the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The company says it has a 100% availability rate for helicopter cockpit replacement parts for its common avionics architecture system. Also expect Rockwell Collins to introduce a tailored life-cycle service solution called FlexForce for military and government agencies. The FlexForce program is designed to provide transparent repair and supply-chain visibility on a performance basis.
As the U.S. Army continues to simultaneously recapitalize its helicopter fleet and support the war in Afghanistan, talks with suppliers to purchase more workhorse Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters are dominated by a pressure to reduce their price. The Army, which has been hit hard by budget cuts, is thinning the number of soldiers in its ranks and associated ground equipment. Its aviation portfolio, however, is being increased, although at a slower pace than originally planned owing to financial pressure.
The U.S. Defense Department plans to kick-start the domestic production of drop-in biofuels by co-funding the establishment of at least one regional supply chain using Defense Production Act Title III money. Title III, usually wielded to create or protect industrial capabilities critical to U.S. security, will be used to fund the construction or retrofit of one or more integrated biorefineries capable of producing at least 10 million gal. of fuel annually from domestic feedstocks.
TRAINING PARTNERS: German glider manufacturer Grob Aircraft will supply its G 120TP computer-based training system for Argentina’s Fadea IA-63 Pampa II lead-in fighter/trainer. State-owned Fadea has completed flight tests of the Pampa, which has been re-engined with the Honeywell TFE 731-40 geared turbofan engine.
LONDON — The Australian government is moving forward with plans to upgrade its F/A-18E/F fleet with Growler electronic-attack equipment. The military already has taken 12 of its 24 aircraft wired for the electronic-attack system and now is laying the groundwork to equip them for the EA-18G role, although the final decision to do so will not come until later this year, says Defense Minister Stephen Smith.
