CANBERRA — The Australian Department of Defense does not expect the NH Industries MRH90 transport helicopter, a local version of the NH90, to be operational until the middle of this year. The program, which should have had aircraft in service more than a year ago, has been listed as a project of concern, meaning that it has been formally identified as one that has gone off the rails.
LONDON — Eurocopter sees residual concerns from the Chinese military over efforts to ease lower airspace restrictions, but still expects liberalization to take hold and drive growth in the country’s demand for rotorcraft.
LUKEWARM WELCOME: Just in time to help carry out new defense priorities and changes that the White House and Pentagon announced last week, the four-star chief of the National Guard has taken his seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The move marks the first significant change to the Joint Chiefs since the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, and brings full and equal Joint Chiefs representation to a part-time element of the military that not only is not a free-standing armed service, but is also shared with state governors. The move caps a decade-long effort.
Complaints are just now being voiced by U.S. and allied participants in the NATO-led operations over Libya about the cobbled-together, understaffed and segmented joint command-and-control system. In particular, some early U.S. Navy missile attacks were launched without coordination with the Air Tasking Order, some allies did not have access to key information and personnel without the right skills were assigned to pivotal jobs.
SUB WORK: The U.S. Navy recently awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a $95.9 million contract for production and deployed-systems support of U.S. and U.K. Trident II submarine strategic weapon systems, including the SSBN fire-control system, the SSGN attack weapon-control system, the U.S. SSBN-replacement [SSBN(X)] and the U.K. SSBN-successor common missile compartment. The contract has a maximum value of $225 million if all options are exercised.
Boeing’s decision to lower costs and increase efficiency in its defense operations by shifting work at its huge Wichita facility to elsewhere in its network may well be the first of many plant closures this year as U.S. military spending dries up.
In value terms, 2012 is poised to be India's biggest year for aerospace contracting. The next 12 months will see a raft of large deals signed by the country's government for aircraft virtually across the board, but especially for long-awaited defense projects.
GERMAN ARMOR: The German army will not see any cuts in its 765 Fuchs (Fox) armored personnel carriers, 175 of which are being upgraded to the A8 standard. In addition to the improved ballistic protection and new axles able to support nine tons of the Fuchs 1A7, the Fuchs 1A8 features further improvements in ballistic and mine protection and adds protection from improvised explosive devices, both blast and explosively formed projectiles. By the end of 2011, 88 Fuchs 1A8s had been delivered by Rheinmetall.
The Italian government is ushering in a new round of defense cuts in which, for the first time, the fate of Rome's participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be seriously threatened.
ROME — The Italian government is ushering in a new round of defense cuts in which, for the first time, the fate of Rome’s participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be seriously threatened. The newly launched defense review not only has sweeping implications for Italy’s defense ambitions but also rings in a further belt-tightening in Europe among countries that are just beginning to come to grips with the scale of their budget and debt problems.
Like its Western allies, Australia has had its share of troubled military procurement programs that missed cost and delivery targets. The Kaman Super Seasprite naval helicopter never entered service, for example, despite government expenditures of $1 billion. But Australia also deserves credit for innovations in program management that may hold lessons for other countries. While they offer no guarantee of success, they are worth a closer look.
WRITE IN: In addition to its lawsuit against the service, Hawker Beechcraft is hoping to build political pressure on lawmakers and the Defense Department to force the U.S. Air Force to revisit its decision to award the Light Air Support (LAS) contract to Sierra Nevada/Embraer. The company has launched a letter-writing campaign, asking customers and other supporters to contact their local congressmen and the Pentagon. As a result, close to 5,700 letters had been sent to Congress and the Pentagon by the afternoon of Jan. 6, according to the company.
The past year has seen a lot of turbulence in the stock market, but there have been a few bright spots for investors in aerospace and defense companies. Shares in suppliers of aerospace components fared particularly well in 2011 as Airbus and Boeing ramped up output, and soaring order numbers added to the airframers’ already bulging backlogs.
When it comes to the U.S. missile defense market, nothing and everything have changed. In the closing days of 2011, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced that Boeing would retain its decade-long position as prime contractor for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) missile shield for another seven years. But if the $3.48 billion contract signifies a renewal of the partners' sometimes-rocky marriage, there now seems to be a change in the wedding vows.
The past year has seen a lot of turbulence in the stock market, but there have been a few bright spots for investors in aerospace and defense companies. Shares in suppliers of aerospace components fared particularly well in 2011 as Airbus and Boeing ramped up output, and soaring order numbers added to the airframers' already bulging backlogs. Notable performers among suppliers include Hexcel (up 34%), TransDigm Group (33%), Triumph Group (31%), Sifco Industries (23%), Rolls-Royce (20%), Precision Castparts (18%), Safran (12%) and Moog (10%).
AERONAUTICS/PROPULSION •The AeroVironment Nano Air Vehicle Team developed and unveiled a tiny remotely piloted air vehicle, the Nano Hummingbird. Looking and flying like a tiny bird, it is designed to record video with an onboard camera and send color video to a hand-held controller.
President Barack Obama's changing of the Pentagon's global military focus from Europe to the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions could breathe new life into dormant plans for a new stealthy bomber, and fuel the development of improved intelligence and surveillance aircraft and ballistic- and cruise-missile defenses around the globe.
WATCH THE SKIES: Satellite trackers predict Russia’s Phobos-Grunt Mars mission will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere on or about Jan. 15, with a more precise forecast possible as it winds down toward the atmosphere. Carrying a Chinese probe piggyback, the 13,200-kg (29,040-lb.) spacecraft was left stranded in low Earth orbit after its Nov. 8, 2011, launch on a Zenit 2-SB rocket. Most of the probe’s liftoff mass was hypergolic fuel that may be frozen, and it carried a sample-return capsule that may survive reentry and reach Earth’s surface.
BELL PICKED: Bell Helicopter has entered final negotiations for the sale of 15 429s to the Turkish National Police, the company reports. The 429 is a new entrant in the light twin-engine helicopter market, and the company sees Turkey’s selection “as a significant win in the European market.”
The conflict in Libya introduced to combat a new weapons system: the Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft. But that first exposure came without warning, and the spur-of-the-moment redeployment forced the U.S. Navy to demonstrate its operational and technological flexibility within NATO and U.S. Air Force frameworks.
The Defense Department needs to do a better job pricing and developing its non-standard rotary-wing aircraft (NSRWA) programs, specifically Mi-17s, a Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “DOD officials did not adequately manage the acquisition and support of NSRWA,” the IG says in its report, released this week. The IG estimates the Pentagon has obligated more than $1.6 billion over the last five years and the Defense Department has planned for more than $1 billion in estimated future NSRWA efforts.
