C-130 aircraft from the UK's Royal Air Force have helped deliver much-needed military equipment to Iraq to assist those in the north of the country combating ISIL extremists.
LONDON — South Korea has selected Rafael’s Spike NLOS (Non-Line Of Sight) missile as the primary weapon for its new fleet of AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat helicopters. Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) made the announcement on Jan. 3. The decision on the primary weapon comes a year after Seoul selected the Wildcat over the Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk in a $560 million deal announced in January 2013.
The U.S. Navy’s SSBN ballistic missile submarine fleet anchors the country’s nuclear deterrence future, but the nation needs to maintain the force structure and it cannot rely solely on those subs, a recent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) report says.
LONDON — A committee of U.K. Parliament members (MPs) is urging the government to produce a fully developed strategy for the armed forces as it begins to work on a 2015 Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR). Publishing its report on Jan. 7, the House of Commons Defense Committee said the 2010 SDSR and the National Security Strategy (NSS), published the same year, had been governed not by any “strategic vision” but simply the objective of reducing the country’s budget deficit.
LONDON — The Czech government has approved the sale of 28 surplus L-159 light attack aircraft to the American aviation service company Draken International. The aircraft, which have been in storage since 2006, were part of a larger order for the type made during the 1990s. But since the introduction of the Saab JAS-39 Gripen, some 36 of the L-159s, also known as the Advanced Light Combat Aircraft, have sat in storage, with the Czech government offering the aircraft to numerous nations without success.
UAV BOOST: The Pentagon is speeding UAV and Hellfire missile deliveries to Iraq under the existing foreign military sale with the country, according to a Defense Department spokesman. “We’re expediting delivery of 10 operational ScanEagles for part of the original purchase, as well as an additional four nonoperational ScanEagles, which will be sent to help facilitate maintenance of the original 10,” Army Col. Steven Warren told reporters Jan. 7. According to Warren, officials anticipate an additional 48 Raven surveillance UAVs will be delivered in the spring.
Less than a month after announcing a headcount reduction and restructuring in its European operations, Airbus Group also is making changes in its North American arm. Sean O’Keefe, once the head of EADS North America (renamed Airbus Group), is stepping down from his post. Allan McArtor, chairman of Airbus Americas, will assume the role of CEO of Airbus Group in North America, with oversight of operations in the U.S., Canada and Latin and South America.
The U.S. Army is accelerating plans to cut its active-duty ranks so budgeters have more money to buy new weapons and systems, the service’s chief of staff reaffirmed Jan. 7.
Recent ballistic missile defense (BMD) tests prove that the latest operational generation Aegis combat system and missiles aboard the guided-missile cruiser CG-70 USS Lake Erie can do those missions, says the ship’s commanding officer. “No more tests are required for the 1B [standard missile] or for the 4.0 [Aegis system],” Capt. John Banigan tells the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN). “While it’s not finalized, it’s just a matter of paperwork. It is operationally effective.”
Jerry DeMuro has been appointed the next president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc., following the retirement of Linda Hudson. DeMuro, a former executive with General Dynamics, will take over on Feb. 1, the company announced on Jan. 7, succeeding Hudson, who announced she would step down in August. DeMuro will be appointed as an executive director of BAE Systems plc in the U.K. and will serve on the company’s executive committee as well as on the board of the U.S. side of the company.
Less than a month after announcing a headcount reduction and restructuring in its European operations, Airbus Group is also making changes in its North America arm, tapping Airbus Americas Chairman Allan McArtor as CEO of Airbus Group in North America. McArtor will have oversight of operations in the U.S., Canada and Latin and South America, and is taking over for Sean O'Keefe, once the head of EADS North America (renamed Airbus Group), who is stepping down from his post.
Timing is everything, and the chronology of signatures President Barack Obama provided on Dec. 26, 2013, to a couple of aerospace-and-defense-related laws has lowered and reformed a key tax benefit that contractors were receiving under certain awards from the federal government. Under the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2013, federal reimbursement of certain contractor salaries applied to cost-type contracts has been capped at $487,000 — down from more than $952,000 under an automatically adjusted regulatory formula before the new law.
Operation of the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter in Afghanistan has been extended through November 2014, but the U.S. Navy has not yet decided whether to replace the aircraft that crashed in June 2013. The crash left a single K-Max operational in Afghanistan, ferrying supplies to and from remote forward Marine Corps bases. Lockheed and Kaman have said the aircraft is repairable, or alternatively a replacement K-Max is available.
Canada is to have fully capable CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopters by 2018 — 10 years behind schedule — under a new agreement reached with manufacturer Sikorsky. The Canadian government is sticking with the years-late Cyclone after an independent evaluation determined that the C$5.1 billion ($4.8 billion) program would be viable with changes to the project structure and governance.
This week could see a surge of news on fresh fiscal 2014 appropriations, as House and Senate appropriators are working feverishly to put together a so-called omnibus spending bill by Jan. 15, when the stopgap continuing resolution (CR) of 2013 funds runs out.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) plans to award Lockheed Martin a contract to continue development and conduct additional flight tests of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm), keeping the weapon on track for possible deployment in 2018. Pentagon efforts to transition Lrasm from a Darpa/Office of Naval Research (ONR) demonstration to a program of record without a competition have attracted controversy. But in a December notice, Darpa announced its intent to award Lockheed a sole-source contract for follow-on development.
Lawmakers have adopted a plan to transfer new Alenia C-27Js from the U.S. Air Force to the U.S. Coast Guard, and older Coast Guard Lockheed Martin C-130s to the U.S. Forest Service after a protracted interagency debate over the aircraft last year. The transfers were signed into law with the long-awaited passage of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act last month.
CRACKING DOWN: U.S. law firm Hughes, Hubbard & Reed says the developing and Western world is catching up with American enforcements against business corruption. “Although the United States remains the most active anticorruption regulator, other agencies around the world (including national regulators and multinational development banks) have shown a greater proclivity toward prosecuting bribery offenses,” the lawyers say in a 2013 review of global antibribery actions. A recent example is India’s cancellation of its AgustaWestland AW101 helicopter buy.
U.S. Special Operations command recently leased the Lockheed Martin S301 Special Operations Forces dry combat submersible. In late 2013 the command awarded Lockheed an estimated $10 million sole-sourced lease of the S301, a commercially-classed dry submersible vessel, to support risk mitigation research, development, test, and evaluation in support of Socom’s long-term dry-combat-submersibles program objectives.
HONOLULU, Hawaii — As the U.S. continues to rebalance its naval forces to the Asia-Pacific region, one potential threat still looms large—the development of a Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile. “Known as the DF-21D, this missile provides the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] with the capability to attack large ships, including aircraft carriers, in the western Pacific,” the Pentagon says in its most recent annual report on Chinese military capabilities. “The DF-21D has a range exceeding 1,500 km [930 mi.] and is armed with a maneuverable warhead.”
