LONDON — The U.K. is claiming second place in the league of defense exporters after achieving £8.8 billion in exports in 2012. Figures released by U.K. Trade & Investment’s Defense and Security Organization (UKTI DSO) show that exports rose in 2012 by 62% from 2011. The agency says that the U.K. is maintaining its position as the second largest defense exporter after the U.S. Combined defense and security exports rose to £11.5 billion ($18 billion) in 2012, up from £8 billion in 2011.
NEW DELHI — India is expected to expedite the purchase of six additional C-130J airlifters and 15 Boeing Chinook CH-47F tandem-rotor helicopters, in the wake of flooding and landslides that have highlighted the need for such assets. “The ongoing rescue efforts in northern India, where at least 9,400 people remain stranded following floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains, have emphasized the need for more of such aircraft and heavy-lift helos,” an Indian air force official says.
FIGHT BREWING: Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), a leading minority member of the Armed Services and Budget committees, among others, is forecasting a Senate floor battle over whether President Barack Obama can or should be allowed to pursue his call for further reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal and negotiations with Russia. “We’ll have a dispute when we talk about Russia over the power of the president to reduce nuclear weapons,” he said June 20.
The second Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-2) had to cut short a June 21 underway because of a “minor engineering disruption,” U.S. Navy officials say, but was able to get back to sea June 24. The disruption occurred very shortly after the USS Independence started to get under way in San Diego, officials say. The ship dropped anchor for a short period of time before returning to the naval base. “The ship had a seawater cooling casualty resulting in one of the two online diesel generators tripping,” Navy officials say.
NEW DELHI — India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has joined with French aerospace company Sagem to manufacture automatic flight-control systems and sensors. HAL entered into a contract with Sagem, a unit of the Safran Group, at the Paris air show. The pact involves technology transfer to set up the production facility for the systems and sensors at its Hyderabad division in southern India, a HAL spokesman says.
PARIS — Concerns over the intellectual property (IP) rights of its X3 high-speed technology helped to sway Eurocopter and EADS North America (EADS NA) to withdraw from the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role advanced-rotorcraft technology demonstration program.
The best way to make a big splash in the Asia-Pacific (A-P) naval arena is with small ships — fleets of them. AMI International, a consultancy covering the global naval market, says the regional appetite for patrol, maritime security and special operations missions ships “is one of the largest and rapidly expanding segments of the A-P naval market.”
The Defense Department says it plans to take steps to better employ the under-used Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) as the nation transitions from a wartime mind-set.
For the FAA and all of those interested in transportation policy and appropriations, this week is unusually important. The Transportation Department could see its presidential nominee, Anthony Foxx, voted on and confirmed by senators, while other Capitol Hill action will provide key insight into expected spending for fiscal 2014.
PARIS — The “War on Cost” is a priority at Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, made more difficult as U.S. military budget constraints stretch out the delivery schedule for the F-35 Lightning II fighter and its PW F135 powerplant. “We face stronger headwinds,” says P&W Military Engines president Bennett Croswell. “But we continue to make progress.”
The U.S. Navy took major strides with two major unmanned underwater vehicle programs this month by finishing reliability testing for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) remote minehunting system (RMS) and deploying the first MK18 Mod 2 Kingfish unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) for operations in the 5th Fleet area of responsibility.
NEW DELHI — In a blow to India’s state-owned airframe manufacturer, the Indian air force (IAF) is expected to exercise options with Swiss firm Pilatus for 38 PC-7 Mk-II basic turboprop trainers in a deal worth about $275 million. The agreement adds to the 75 Pilatus aircraft the IAF ordered in May 2012 for $520 million and follows a combination of developments, chiefly the failure of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) to meet timelines and projected costs for its own concept trainer.
PARIS — Italy’s Finmeccanica expects to return to profitability this year as the restructuring of the aerospace and defense conglomerate over the last 18 months begins to reap rewards. Progress was slowed by goodwill write-downs in 2012 on its U.S.-based DRS and Europe-based Selex ES defense electronics businesses, and the removal of top management in February amid allegations of corruption that the company strenuously denies.
LE BOURGET — GE Aviation’s helicopter engine business is bringing in $1 billion a year, with sales weighted 70% to the military. But a resurgence of interest in its civil CT7 is expected to swing sales to 70% commercial by 2016. The quantities will remain the same – around 800 engines a year, says Jean Lydon-Rodgers, VP and General Manager of GE Aviation’s military systems. The engine in question is the 2,000 shp-class T700, which powers all Black Hawk and Apache helicopters.
The automatic U.S. budget cuts known as “sequestration” went into effect on March 1, but the sky has not fallen as far as investors and traders are concerned. There is no pure defense stock-price index but shares of the largest U.S. defense primes have outperformed both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average since March 1. Small and mid-size stocks have also performed well and even the major U.S. defense services contractors—Booz Allen, CACI, ManTech and SAIC—have seen their shares appreciate more than broader market indices.
Within the next couple of months, the U.S. Navy/Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D) team plans to wind up the program by recovering one of the two air vehicles on an aircraft carrier in a Navy test range area 100 mi. off the Virginia coast.
President Barack Obama's Brandenburg Gate call to eliminate up to a third of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has few ardent champions. And the remaining discontent may matter, since the cuts aren't likely to materialize while Obama is still in office. Republicans denounce the plan to reduce beyond the New Start treaty's limit of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, and promise to set up procedural roadblocks in the Senate.
