NAVY Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $33,996,000 firm-fixed-price contract for AN/AAQ-30 Target Sight Systems (TSS) and data. The TSS will be integrated into the AH-1Z Cobra Attack Helicopter and is part of the United States Marine Corps H-1 Upgrades Program for the remanufacture of legacy aircraft with state of the art designs incorporated into the existing fleet of AH-1Ws, converting them to AH-1Z. AIR FORCE
While China says it still seeks peaceful resolutions to the territorial maritime disputes it is embroiled in with some of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific, the country still wants the debates to take into account China’s “historical” perspective, says Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan. Such a perspective could be a significant hurdle, some regional geopolitical analysts say. Many of the disputes pit China’s historical claims against more accepted, modern-era international maritime limits.
The U.S. Navy can not afford further delays in the design, construction and delivery of its SSBN Ohio-class nuclear-missile submarines, says Rear Adm. Richard Breckenridge, director of Undersea Warfare. The coming year is critical to keeping that schedule, he says. “By all rights, we should have delivered a replacement Ohio class in 2011 but Ohio replacement will submerge on its first patrol in 2031,” Breckenridge says. “We have extended recapitalization, and thus avoiding cost, by 20 years. Each SSBN generation requires special, national attention.”
LONDON — The U.K.’s Joint Helicopter Command is considering basing options for its enlarged fleet of Boeing CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters. The Royal Air Force’s 46-strong fleet of Chinooks is currently based at RAF Odiham, Hampshire, but the air arm will soon be taking delivery of an extra 14 Chinooks in the Mk. 6 configuration currently being built by Boeing in Philadelphia. But the base at Odiham does not currently have the facilities to cater for 60 Chinooks, so commanders are exploring alternative options.
The Pentagon has added $12 million to its 2014 spending plans to equip its Boeing 737-based C-40s with a fuel-tank inerting system, the same upgrade mandated for U.S. operators of Boeing commercial aircraft. The 2013 spending plan anticipated spending about $1 million more than fiscal 2014-17 for various required modifications. In the fiscal 2014 request, the figure jumped $6.1 million for 2014 and another $6 million for the outyear estimates through fiscal 2017.
COPEHILL DOWN, U.K. — The U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) is rapidly building up its fleet of modernized CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters upgraded through the £290 million ($450 million) Project Julius program. Sixteen of the RAF’s 38 Chinook Mk. 2 helicopters have now been updated to the Mk. 4 standard and the first aircraft will shortly be deployed to join the U.K.’s Joint Helicopter Force operating from Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. Several Mk. 4s are already in-theater, having arrived in December 2012 to support special forces operations.
These are among the 94 STOs and 95 VLs conducted thus far in Developmental Testing 2, a follow-on to a set of day-only DT trials in 2011. The trials, slated to end last week, are designed to open the envelope to include night flying around the ship, different approaches and headings for landings and conducting these operations in varying wind conditions. So far, testing has been conducted in headwinds of 35 kt and crosswinds of 15 kt, says Navy Capt. Kurt Kastner, executive officer of the Wasp, which was operating about 35 mi. offshore.
An article on page 40 of the July 29 edition misidentified a speaker at a congressional hearing. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) is the U.S. House Armed Services Committee member who should have been quoted.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force has deployed Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Cyprus to defend Sovereign Base Areas on the island. Six Typhoons arrived at RAF Akrotiri on the island on Aug. 29, within hours of a Parliamentary debate on possible action against government forces in Syria accused of a chemical weapon attack in the country’s capital of Damascus last week.
Despite a call for budget cuts, the U.S. intelligence community’s budget for fiscal 2013 was $52.6 billion, and placed a high priority on certain major acquisition programs. That classified request to Congress was a reduction of $1.3 billion from the previous year, a start toward saving $15 billion by 2017 and $25 billion over the decade, according to a report by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that was leaked to the Washington Post by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Boeing will begin assembly of the first new-build MH-47G later this month, as it works to finalize a contract for another seven new-airframe Chinooks to augment the U.S. Army’s fleet of special-operations helicopters. All eight new-production MH-47Gs, based on the regular Army’s CH-47F heavy-lift helicopter, are scheduled to be delivered in 2015. The Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation regiment already operates 61 MH-47Gs remanufactured from CH-47As and Ds.
CARRIER OVERHAUL: The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) completed its Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) this week. The Roosevelt began its RCOH on Aug. 26, 2009. The ship returned to the fleet after four days of sea trials. More than 24 million man hours of work were conducted during the RCOH, including refueling the reactors, upgrading ship’s infrastructure and modernizing combat systems and air wing capabilities. The RCOH will enable the ship to carry out the remaining 23 years of its 50-year service life.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Boeing is projecting that production of the CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter will continue—and potentially increase—beyond 2020 as international sales build on another round of remanufacturing for the U.S. Army. Production of CH-47Fs for the Army is scheduled to end in 2019, but deliveries of the upgraded Block 2 aircraft are planned to begin in 2020. The Army is expected to upgrade all of its Chinooks to Block 2 standard to restore lift and range capability lost to weight growth.
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has completed the first flight of the country’s first indigenously produced turboprop trainer. The Hurkus, named after celebrated Turkish aviator Vecihi Hurkus, took to the air from the TAI facility at Akinci airbase near Ankara on Aug. 29. The aircraft, in the hands of TAI test pilot Murat Özpala, made a 33-min. flight that saw the Hurkus climb to 9,500 ft. and conduct tests of the flight control surfaces.
Looking to reduce its $8 billion annual fuel bill, the U.S. Air Force is seeking ideas for coatings and surfaces that could reduce drag on its current aircraft fleet, and potentially also benefit commercial operators. The Air Force Research Laboratory has posted a request for information (RFI) on engineered surfaces and coatings that would promote and protect drag-reducing laminar on wings, tails, fuselages and nacelles on current and future aircraft.
French defense electronics group Sagem and the Kamov Design Bureau have announced plans to develop an enhanced version of the Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter. Revealing the plans at the MAKS 2013 air show in Moscow on Aug. 28, the two companies said the work will “address a requirement expressed by several countries.”
