Washington and Wall Street analysts are beginning to believe that another round of so-called sequestration budget cuts for fiscal 2014 will bring significant reductions to weapons systems as the Pentagon runs out of budget room to maneuver.
Boeing says a new approach to helicopter flight testing has proved successful following the on-time delivery to Canada of the first of 15 highly modified CH-47F Chinooks. Chinooks are assembled in Philadelphia, but flight testing of the Canadian CH-147F was relocated to Boeing’s Mesa, Ariz., plant for the first time “to take advantage of Mesa’s rotorcraft experience, combined with that at Philadelphia,” says Steve Parker, Chinook program manager for Canada and Italy.
LONDON — The European Commission (EC) has cleared General Electric’s planned acquisition of Italian aero-engine supplier Avio S.p.A., but the ruling comes with caveats concerning Avio’s involvement in the Eurofighter program. GE’s $4.3 billion purchase of Avio’s aerospace business from private equity firm Cinven Ltd, announced at the end of 2012, comes with requirements about the safeguarding of the joint Eurojet GmBH consortium, which builds the EJ200 engine for the Eurofighter aircraft.
GENUINE DISPLEASURE: A proposed acquisition rule from the Pentagon designed to combat counterfeit parts is drawing the U.S. technology industry’s ire, according to a statement from its lobby association.
With the growing proliferation of submarines around the world and the accompanying threat to the undersea dominance the U.S. Navy says it has and wants to maintain, the service is looking to identify and address antisubmarine warfare (ASW) gaps. To that end, the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) Gravely Naval Warfare Research Group conducted the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Integration and Interoperability (I&I) series of workshops to analyze gaps in the “ASW kill chain” and determine the effectiveness of current programs and policies.
The U.S. Army has begun testing of a new intelligence collecting aircraft, though the program’s future remains murky as defense spending shrinks and the Pentagon plans to shift its focus away from Afghanistan and toward near-peer competitors in the Pacific region.
U.S. ARMY Lockheed Martin Corp., Liverpool, N.Y., was awarded a $206,884,461 modification (P0010) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (W15P7T-12-C-C015) to procure AN/TPQ-53 Radar Systems and corresponding spare parts. The cumulative total face value of this contract is $605,052,337. Work will be performed in Syracuse, N.Y. A combination of fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013 Procurement funds are being obligated on this award. The Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity.
SILVER LINING: Could another continuing resolution of current appropriations be a good thing for the Pentagon and its industrial base? “Our view remains that like fiscal 2013, the full $52 billion [sequestration] cut could be reduced as another continuing resolution and muddle-through on the debt ceiling won’t leave the [Defense Department] enough time to implement a full $52 billion reduction,” say Capital Alpha Partners analysts.
LONDON — With its U.S. business in the throes of sequestration, Lockheed Martin is ramping up its efforts to increase its share of the international aerospace and defense market. As a result, the company is forming a new subsidiary, Lockheed Martin International (LMI), which will be charged with pushing the company’s products to the global market.
As the U.S. rushes to arm and train Afghan security forces ahead of the West’s pullout of major combat forces next year, a new inspector general report has found Afghan air forces to be woefully unprepared and is recommending halting two related U.S. aircraft acquisitions.
LONDON — Bristow Group has taken over search-and-rescue helicopter operations in the North of Scotland. Beginning July 1, Bristow crews flying Sikorsky S-92s took over from CHC flying SAR missions on behalf of the U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) under its Gap SAR contract awarded in February 2012.
MBDA’s Meteor long-range air-to-air missile has moved another step closer to service entry following the launch of production missiles from the Saab JAS-39 Gripen. Firing trials at the end of June — conducted by the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) and Saab — saw two production Meteors launched by a Gripen as part of trials to clear the aircraft’s new operational software system, known as MS20, which will allow the aircraft to fire the new missile.
The U.S. Navy awarded Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services (HPES) a firm-fixed-price award fee contract for the Next Generation Enterprise Network (Ngen) on June 27. The base amount of the award is about $321.7 million. There are four one-year options, which if exercised gives the contract a potential overall value of $3.5 billion through June 2018.
While Somalia coast pirate attacks are still dropping, the number of West African-area incidents is rising and other attacks around the globe continue, say those who track such crimes. The persistence of pirates and the threat of other attacks by maritime terrorists and similar risks makes it even more imperative for worldwide navies to continue patrols, the pirate-trackers say.
LONDON — The German government has made the unusual decision to publish data relating to UAV losses. The data, published on June 27, relates to losses of German UAVs from the hand-launched EMT Aladin up to the Northrop Grumman Euro Hawk, of which Germany has one aircraft, following the cancellation of the program by the government in May due to concerns over the costs of certifying it to fly in civil airspace.
FRENCH REAPER: The U.S. has offered to sell France 16 MQ-9 Reaper UAVs along with ground control stations, parts and logistics support worth an estimated $1.5 billion, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The agency notified Congress of the potential sale of the General Atomics-made UAVs June 27, saying the sale would “enhance the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance of the French military in support of national, NATO, United Nation-mandated and other coalition operations.”
The U.S. Navy says the Jan. 17 grounding of the ex-USS Guardian minesweeper in Philippine waters was a “tragic mishap” in a recent report that cites failures of ship leadership and crew leading up to the accident. “USS Guardian leadership and watch teams failed to adhere to prudent, safe, and sound navigation principles which would have alerted them to approaching dangers with sufficient time to take mitigating action,” Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, writes in the report.
