Philip King (see photo) has been appointed president of San Jose, Calif.-based Vision Systems International, succeeding Drew Brugal. King has held leadership positions at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing.
Hannele Malin has been appointed VP-internal auditing at Finnair, succeeding Erkki Lehtinen, who will retire. Malin was manager for government, risk and compliance services at Deloitte & Touche.
Paul Chun has become managing director of KLM UK Engineering, based in Paris and Amstelveen, Netherlands. He held the same role at Epcor, where he will be succeeded by Romain Helmer, who headed KLM Engineering & Maintenance's Boeing 737 unit. Ton Dortmans was named executive VP-engineering and maintenance of KLM E&M, succeeding Peter de Swert.
The majority of the 161 unclassified milsats forecast for production in the next decade will go into service in the near term with production tapering in the outyears.
Gen. Jean-Paul Palomeros (see photo), chief of staff of the French air force, has become director of the European Air Group, based at RAF Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, for a two-year term. He succeeds Lt. Gen. Aarne Kreuzinger-Janik, commander of the German air force.
BUDGET COVERAGE: When the U.S. government’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal is released on Feb. 13, Aviation Week Intelligence Network subscribers should be sure to visit http://www.aviationweek.com/2013budget, which will feature all the latest budgetary and programmatic news, data and analysis grouped together in one place. (See p. 7 of this issue for a budget preview chart.) To allow for all the latest budget news to be included, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report subscribers should expect a delay in the arrival of their issue dated Feb. 14.
Andreas Knoepfel (see photo) has joined Swiss Aviation Consulting of Huenenberg/Zug as managing director of Swiss AeroRisk Management and a board member of Swiss AeroHoldings. He was a senior aviation manager for an insurance broker.
Bill Gerstenmaier (see photo), NASA associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, has received the Von Karman Lectureship in Astronautics award, given by the Washington-based American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was recognized for his leadership in human spaceflight, culminating in the space shuttle and International Space Station programs.
Lockheed Martin will unveil a reduced-cost C-130XJ variant of the Hercules airlifter at the Singapore Airshow, one that is aimed at customers requiring only a small fleet of aircraft capable of being equipped to perform special missions in addition to providing tactical transport. With 246 C-130Js delivered and another 71 in backlog, the company believes it has barely scratched the surface of the market to replace the 1,200 Hercules airlifters operated by 72 countries worldwide, many requiring fleets of only 4-8 aircraft.
U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) Rick Lynch and Paul McDuffee have joined the board of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Arlington, Va. Lynch commanded the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Div. at Fort Hood, Texas. McDuffee is Insitu's principal interface with the FAA on the commercial viability of unmanned aircraft.
Mike Leinback has become director of human spaceflight operations at Denver-based United Launch Alliance. He was launch team leader for all NASA space shuttle missions launched since 2000.
Innovation has become a mantra for aerospace in part because the industry is worried about losing its edge. Pressure on research spending and global competition from other industries have companies concerned about where the ideas and talent will come from.
DELAYED PIT: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says the Obama administration will announce a delay to planned construction of a Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory facility that would enable the U.S. to produce more plutonium pits, the core of modern nuclear weapons. The administration will announce its fiscal 2013 budget request Feb. 13, and senior officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management will host a conference call at 4 p.m. EST.
Bernd Munzenmayer has become senior sales adviser for Pro Star Aviation, Londonderry, N.H., supporting new Sales Director Clark Gordon. Munzenmayer is a founder of Pro Star. Julie Weber has been promoted to VP from senior director of people for Southwest Airlines.
NEW DELHI — India successfully test-fired an interceptor missile Feb. 10 from a base in India’s eastern state of Orissa as part of its two-layer ballistic missile defense program, according to a senior Indian defense official.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the management of Dassault are elated, as Rafale is the apparent winner of the $10.4 billion Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft order for India's air force. France also has an order backlog with India that includes the Scorpene submarine and $2.4 billion in retrofits to the Mirage 2000 fleet.
The U.S. Army’s Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) effort — the cornerstone of its tactical communications, surveillance and intelligence-sharing modernization — looks like it will emerge from the fiscal 2013 budget rollout in pretty good shape, according to Army officials. The program currently anticipates its next evaluation in May, while working on plans for capability evaluations to continue through 2013 and into fiscal 2014, according to service spokesman Paul Mehney.
The U.S. Army is not expected to issue final requirements for its planned Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) helicopter until after evaluation flights scheduled for the second quarter. Essentially, these flights are intended to allow the competing manufacturers to show what they have, what it will cost, and to help the Army decide what it can get for what it can afford.
