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.
In a conversation with AW&ST Contributing Editor David Eshel, Brig. Gen. Hagi Topolanski, chief of air staff and deputy commander of the Israeli air force, describes how the IAF is dealing with the evolving threat in the Middle East. He lays out the Air Force's upcoming five-year acquisition blueprint, including plans for the purchase and fielding of the first squadron of F-35I stealth fighters.
Vietnam has a requirement for long-range maritime patrol aircraft, but is unwilling to buy the aircraft from the U.S. unless it lifts a ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam's ruling Communist Party government.
Airbus Military's A400M airlifter was finally able to provide a flying display in front of the crowd at Le Bourget this year. Issues with the aircraft's TP400 turboprop engines limited the planned aerobatic display in 2011 to a mere flyby before it was relegated to the static park. The second aircraft at the show, which is destined for the French air force, appeared in the static display area.
In late April, the FAA trumped the National Transportation Safety Board by approving a redesign and return-to-flight plan for the Boeing 787's troubled lithium-ion batteries. It came the same week NTSB held an investigative hearing in which participants made it clear that the root cause for the smoking batteries had not been found. The usually loquacious NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman played it cool at the time, but public comments she provided in the FAA's airworthiness directive (AD) docket for the 787 fix earlier this month reveal she might yet have the last word.
Governments have not always been good at dealing with the defense industry. Over history and probably in the future too, there have been and are likely to be a litany of delayed or canceled programs caused by overspecification, cost overruns or poor quality. Such affairs are typically part and parcel of defense life, but as fiscal belts tighten, these events are becoming increasingly politically untenable.
The U.S. military's so-called Pacific pivot has the Navy taking a big gamble on a little vessel—the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The Navy is betting the frigate-sized ship will provide just the right kind of presence without being overpowering as the U.S. struggles to boost its presence in the region without flexing too much muscle and infringing on the sovereignty of the Asian partners it wants to woo.
A “discussion draft” of a two-year NASA reauthorization bill is running into bipartisan opposition in its originating House space subcommittee, illustrating how lawmakers' divergent opinions about NASA spending are inhibiting progress. Democrats are complaining about cuts in Earth Science funding. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), the panel's vice chairman, promises to vote against the bill unless more money is provided for the Space Launch System program in his district.
