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.
Greg Diognardi has been appointed Falcon 900 technical sales manager at StandardAero Business Aviation, Tempe, Ariz. He was regional sales manager for Landmark Aviation.
Marie Epstein (see photo) has been promoted to VP-sales for the Americas from regional sales manager at Virgin Atlantic Cargo in New York. She was director of strategic accounts at Delta Air Lines/Northwest Airlines Cargo.
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.
Global Aviation Holdings, a casualty of the ends of wars and some poor planning, intends to jettison 16 of its 30 aircraft leases as part of its restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
NEW DELHI — India has approved new guidelines to enable state-run defense firms to form joint ventures (JVs) with local and overseas companies, as the country engages in modernizing its armed forces. “The objective is to have better risk-management, greater efficiency, shorter timeframes for delivery to meet the increasing demands of the armed forces, and for enhancing self-reliance in the defense sector as a whole,” a government official said Feb. 9.
With looming slowdowns to the development of a new generation of U.S. ballistic missile submarines and a nuclear bomb life-extension program, the House of Representatives is set to become the battlefield for a growing fight over potential reductions to what the Obama administration had pledged to spend on nuclear modernization over the next 10 years.
Global Aviation Holdings, a casualty of the ends of wars and some poor planning, plans to jettison 16 of its 30 aircraft leases as part of its restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to flight test “alcohol-to-jet” (ATJ) biofuel in a Fairchild A-10 as a prelude to certifying the fuel across its aircraft fleets to help achieve the target of meeting half its domestic fuel needs with alternative sources by 2016. Biofuels startup Gevo is supplying the fuel for the feasibility demonstration, says Jeff Braun, director of the Air Force Alternative Fuels Certification Office. The company won a contract in September to deliver 7,000 gal. of fuel for the tests, with an option for another 4,000 gal.
LONDON — The British parliament’s defense committee plans to start a review of the country’s future maritime surveillance needs following the government’s decision not to field the Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft. The decision to cancel future Nimrod MRA4s and dismantle ones already built was made in 2010 as part of the Strategic Defense and Security Review, but has remained controversial. Legislators have repeatedly expressed concern over the capability gap, in part because the government has not said how it will be addressed.
NEW BLOOD: The U.S. State Department is looking for a few new members of a private-sector advisory panel to advise Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, on defense trade regulations and export reforms for the next two years. The panel’s changeover comes as the Obama administration is in the process of overhauling the U.S. munitions list. Forty-five people served on the Defense Trade Advisory Group from 2010 to 2012, and it has been led by George Sevier of MK Technology and Joyce Remington of BAE Systems.
The U.S. Air Force is concerned about cyber-theft and sympathetic to industries that are victimized by digital attack, but the service is not going to pick up the bill by adding cost to its acquisition programs.
ABOARD THE EL DIABLO — On just about any other watercraft, the sight of land approaching with such speed and proximity would be cause for concern, to say the least. But here on this Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) vessel, the mission is to hit the beach as quickly and efficiently as needed.
LONDON — The U.K. will acquire an eighth C-17, Prime Minister David Cameron tells parliament. The Royal Air Force (RAF) has long sought more of the Boeing airlifters. The U.K. has been increasing its C-17 fleet incrementally, initially leasing four aircraft more than a decade ago. The aircraft is due for delivery to the RAF in July. As with previous C-17s delivered to non-U.S. operators, the U.S. Air Force has given up a production slot to satisfy an ally’s needs. The eighth RAF airlifter comes off the line in March.
ABOARD THE USS KEARSArGE — High up in the “Vultures Row” flight-observation deck aboard the LHD-3 amphibious landing helicopter dock ship Kearsarge, the February wind cuts through even the warmest of leather jackets as the vessel steams through the Atlantic Ocean to participate in Bold Alligator, the East Coast’s largest joint and multinational amphibious assault exercise in the past 10 years.
The U.S. Transportation Department wants to develop new spectrum interference standards to protect GPS signals from transmissions in adjacent bands as the battle between broadband-wireless hopeful LightSquared and the GPS industry enters a new phase.
TURKISH UPGRADES: Turkish Aerospace Industries has kicked off deliveries of F-16s it has upgraded for the Pakistan air force under a program that is to run until September 2014. The project, called Peace Drive II, involves the upgrade of 41 older F-16s under a contract inked in 2009. The first handover took place Feb. 8, TAI says. The program is largely an avionics and structural update of older F-16s to bring them near the capability of the F-16 Block 52s that Pakistan has received from Lockheed Martin.
