SINGAPORE — The U.S. and Saudi Arabian governments have finalized the letter of acceptance for the sale of 36 Boeing AH-6i helicopters, marking the formal launch of the program. The deal was concluded in recent weeks, says Jeff Kohler, vice president for business development at Boeing Military Aircraft. The agreement follows completion of contractual discussions last year with Saudi Arabia over the sale of 84 F-15SAs and the refurbishment of 70 F-15S fighters to the “SA” configuration.
New programs to continue research into boost-glide hypersonic weapons for tactical and global precision strike are included in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) $2.82 billion budget request for fiscal 2013.
DALLAS — French engine maker Turbomeca is seeing a rebound in business and predicts a buoyant 2012-2013 on the back of new sales and increased production. “The trough is behind us and the market is picking up again,” says Turbomeca chairman and CEO Olivier Andries. Engine deliveries climbed to 950 in 2011, a 20% increase over 2010. “We also repaired 1,450 engines, which is 10% higher than 2010.”
THE PENTAGON — After years of shipbuilding plans that congressional analysts thought were removed from fiscal reality, the U.S. Navy finally appears to be charting a more realistic course. In years past, analysts at the Congressional Research Service and Congressional Budget Office have said the service simply wanted or said it needed more ships than it could afford with the money it was budgeted to spend.
Like most everyone else in the federal government, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s budget request has been trimmed slightly for fiscal 2013. In documents released Feb. 13, the agency asks Congress for $44.9 billion for fiscal 2013, down from the $46.2 billion it was budgeted in fiscal 2012.
Bottom line up front on the U.S. Army’s fiscal 2013 budget request: Communications and rotary-wing aircraft win, most new ground vehicles live to fight another day, and the service’s modernization plans look pretty secure. While the service is being forced to trim about 80,000 soldiers over the next five years, it is still investing in upgrades to existing platforms. In fiscal 2013, the Army plans to spend about $3.6 billion on its top three rotary-wing aviation programs and $10.6 billion on ground vehicle programs, the Defense Department announced Feb. 13.
The sleeper hit of the U.S. Army’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal may just be its network and communications modernization program, as encapsulated in the Network Integration Evaluation effort that takes place twice a year at Fort Bliss, Texas. It’s there that the Army puts an entire Brigade Combat Team (BCT) in the field to take part in weeks of operational assessments of dismounted and vehicle-mounted radios, handheld devices, sensors and surveillance equipment, while linking them though a single robust battlefield network.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Air Force’s $154.3 billion fiscal 2013 budget request — roughly $12 billion less than the service requested in 2012 — includes termination of two aircraft efforts aimed at building partnerships with allies, as well as a new missile outlined for use in stealthy aircraft.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy has grand procurement plans for its submarine fleets — just not right now. The Navy intends to expand its contracts for its Virginia-class submarines and develop the replacement fleet for its Ohio-class ballistic missile vessels, but those plans are being stretched in the face of other increasing shipbuilding needs and decreasing funding availability.
The Obama administration is proposing $525.4 billion in fiscal 2013 base defense spending, along with $88.5 billion for overseas operations — the first real reduction in military spending over the last decade. And it proposes to cap future war spending at $450 billion through 2021.
PUT OFF: The U.S. Air Force is effectively punting on procuring a new fast-jet trainer, dashing the hopes of industry players vying to compete for the T-38C replacement program. Aircraft development will begin in the future years defense plan, but there is no significant funding set aside in the fiscal 2013 request. Air Force officials still plan, however, to begin buying a replacement trainer in 2017.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy‘s proposed fiscal 2013 budget request anchors the aircraft carrier for the coming year and across the proposed Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), but includes a dip in the fleet size from its current number of 11 to 10. “The reduction to ten carriers is a temporary move reflecting the gap between retirement of the Enterprise and arrival of the Ford class,” notes Loren Thompson, a defense analyst for the Lexington Institute. The budget proposal adds $811 million to the CVN-78 Gerard. R. Ford budget across the FYDP.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy’s topline fiscal 2013 baseline budget request of about $155.9 billion is a study in compromise, protecting some of the service’s signature programs by reducing some, delaying some, and scuttling some other programs altogether. The request is about $9.5 billion less than planned for in the fiscal 2012 budget, and the proposed Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) includes about $58 billion less than had been planned going into the middle part of the decade.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s fiscal 2013 funding request of $7.75 billion includes a major departure for the agency’s testing regime: shelving the massive Raytheon Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) radar. MDA has long used the radar, which is mounted on a large, floating platform, for providing targeting and discrimination data during flight tests in the Pacific region.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s fiscal 2013 budget request of about $10 billion — roughly $344.4 million less than the fiscal 2012 plan — looks to fully fund a sixth National Security Cutter (NSC) and start efforts to buy a new polar icebreaker. Shipbuilding analysts have come to herald the NSCs as a major success story and the Coast Guard has made it clear it would like to buy as many of the ships as it can.
USAF HELOS: The U.S. Air Force is continuing in hopes of buying a new personnel recovery helicopter, after the collapse of its earlier Combat Search and Rescue-X program. The new effort, dubbed the Combat Rescue Helicopter, would begin in fiscal 2013, with buys planned as early as 2016. But the Air Force has once again sidelined an effort to recapitalize its nuclear missile field support helicopters by shelving its plans for a Common Vertical Lift Support Program (CVLSP) rotorcraft and is opting instead to consider buying used Hueys from the U.S.
THE PENTAGON — While the H-1 Huey/Super Cobra garnered increased funding in the fiscal 2013 budget request, the MH-60R, MH-60S and V-22 Osprey all took a hit. The Huey/Super Cobra’s 2013 request is about $852 million for 28 aircraft, compared to about $802 million for 26 helicopters for fiscal 2012.
NEW DELHI — Boeing is in talks with the Indian navy on a follow-on order of four P-8I maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft in addition to the eight ordered in 2009. “We have been in discussion with the Indian navy on advancing the options,” says Dennis Swanson, vice president of international business development for Boeing Defense, Space & Security in India. “We are working with the customer [India] and the customer will decide when the time is appropriate. We stand by ready to engage with them.”
David Russell has joined Gogo, Itaska, Ill., as senior VP and general manager of Europe and the Middle East for commercial aviation. He was VP-strategic programs for SITA Group.
With 246 C-130Js delivered and another 71 in backlog, Lockheed Martin has just scratched the surface of the market to replace the 1,200 Hercules airlifters operated by 72 countries worldwide.
Recent Lockheed Martin Aegis combat system upgrades—the Advanced Capability Build (ACB)-12 and its accompanying multi-mission signal processor (MMSP) for ballistic mission defense (BMD) enhancements—are running behind schedule and over cost projections, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.
The true meaning of Dassault Aviation's highly publicized victory in India extends well beyond a major combat aircraft commitment. In the third quarter, the Indian air force is expected to sign an order for 126 Rafale multirole fighters and could buy 40 additional aircraft at a later date. Eighteen will be manufactured in France, and the remaining 108 are scheduled to be assembled by Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
