France secured its two biggest export agreements in recent memory with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in July, including an €800 million ($1.05 billion) sale of two high-resolution spy satellites built by EADS-Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. The satellites are small enough to launch on a European Vega rocket and are said to be similar to France's twin Pleiades spacecraft, putting the UAE in an elite club of nations cable of taking high-resolution images of sub-meter-sized objects from space.
Avic is broadening its general aviation portfolio with the acquisition of Thielert, a bankrupt German maker of diesel engines for aircraft—including a U.S. Army version of the General Atomics Predator.
FAIR WARNING: U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wants Congress and the White House to backload sequestration cuts under the 10-year time frame of the 2011 Budget Control Act and to give the Defense Department more flexibility to meet any overall reduction. Otherwise, the law’s annual, automatic recisions make for a process that is too steep, too fast — and it will mean culling military missions, particularly as the combined military gets smaller to meet budgets.
FRANKFURT — EADS is preparing a major structural overhaul that will lead to realigned divisions and a new name: Airbus. According to several industry sources, the changes may be confirmed at next week’s board of directors meeting scheduled for July 30. EADS did not comment officially.
EADS is preparing a major structural overhaul that will lead to realigned divisions and a new name: Airbus. According to several industry sources, the changes may be confirmed at a board of directors meeting scheduled for July 30. The European aerospace group, which will not comment, is going to merge its defense and space divisions—Cassidian and Astrium—into a new entity. The new unit is also going to include Airbus Military, according to some sources.
In the final analysis, it will be up to federal lawmakers to decide whether the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) acquisition plan is worth the risks cited by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its newly released report on the program.
Click here to view the pdf Indian Naval Acquisition Plans Fiscal 2013-2018 Indian Naval Acquisition Plans Fiscal 2013-2018 Platform Name Size of Existing Inventory (2013) FY13 Units FY14 Units
The navy-to-navy relationship between the U.S. and India is “solid and growing,” says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the U.S. chief of naval operations. Speaking July 19 at a media briefing, Greenert cited the expansion of the Malabar exercise in Indian waters.
The U.S. Navy agrees with some of the recent recommendations made by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding the much-maligned Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, but the service essentially intends to continue following the program’s current acquisition and development course. The GAO started to investigate the LCS program following congressional outrage last year in the wake of Aviation Week reports about problems aboard LCS-1, the USS Freedom, and related programmatic problems.
The U.S. missile defense system that has failed to intercept a ballistic missile target since 2008 needs more regular testing, says U.S. Air Force Gen. Bob Kehler, who oversees the Pentagon’s Strategic Command.
U.S. Pacific Command (Pacom) has developed and deployed a new logistics tracking system between the U.S. and Australia that the U.S. Navy says will help ensure faster, more coordinated responses to humanitarian crises and other contingencies. U.S. Navy officials say the Pacific Radio Frequency Identification System will also foster more collaboration and integration across the Asia-Pacific region. Pacom, through its U.S. Army Pacific component, and the Australian defense force launched the system in April.
The U.S. Navy is looking to improve the SH-60 Sea Hawk’s ability to provide operational overwatch by gathering intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and disseminating that information to ground troops. The Sea Hawk’s utility for such work was tested this month during the biennial multinational exercise Talisman Saber 2013 in the South Pacific.
PARIS — France secured its two biggest export deals in recent memory with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week, including an agreement to purchase 17 medium-range Ground Master 200 tactical anti-aircraft radar for more than €200 million ($265 million) from Franco-American joint venture ThalesRaytheonSystems, according to industry sources.
MOVING FORWARD: The first Littoral Combat Ship, the USS Freedom, got under way to resume participation in the at-sea phase of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (Carat) Singapore the afternoon of July 24 after repairs to the ship’s electrical plant, the U.S. Navy reports. “Initial assessment on the loss of propulsion was that the number 2 and 3 ship service diesel generators (SSDGs) overheated and shut down,” the Navy says. “Since arriving in Singapore July 21, crew and maintenance technicians replaced turbochargers in (the SSDGs).
The U.S. Navy’s plan for its future ballistic missile submarine fleet meets the nation’s needs and should not be cut, says Rear Adm. Richard Breckenridge, undersea warfare director, in a recent blog.
RAF FAIRFORD, U.K. — Alenia Aermacchi and ATK have begun work on the fire control system envisioned for the gunship variant of the C-27J Spartan tactical airlifter.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) has taken delivery of its second C-17 military transport aircraft, a month after the first arrived in India. Boeing is on schedule to deliver three more C-17s this year and five in 2014, giving India 10 aircraft and making it the largest C-17 operator outside the U.S. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal N.A.K. Browne took delivery of the second C-17 from Boeing in Long Beach, Calif., on June 22.
