U.S. ARMY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Ariz., was awarded a $69,227,561 modification (P00008), to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, foreign-military-sales (FMS) contract (W58RGZ-12-C-0089), for the procurement of Apache Block III aircraft and associated parts and services. This FMS contract is in support of Saudi Arabia. The total cumulative face value of this contract is $259,389,626. The Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
Large aerospace and defense (A&D) companies are getting out in front of government budget cuts by cutting costs, shedding excess capacity and trimming their workforces, and the payoff has been higher profit margins, according to the new results from Aviation Week’s Top-Performing Companies study.
NEW DELHI — Russia has made a veiled threat that it may stop bidding for Indian military contracts, complaining that some procurements seem to have been engineered for predetermined outcomes. Undermined by fierce competition from U.S. and European defense companies on several deals in the Indian arms market in the past few years, Russia feels, “Sometimes, terms of tenders are crafted specifically to get the required results.”
SINGAPORE — The defense community needs to better employ technology to meet the long-term ebb and flow of military shipbuilding, says Chan Yeng Kit, the permanent secretary for defense development for Singapore.
LONDON — Spain is preparing to make cuts to several aircraft procurement programs as it aims to post more savings in the face of the European economic downturn. Several Spanish news outlets are reporting that the country’s ministry of defense is planning substantial cuts to the Eurofighter, Airbus Military A400M transport aircraft, Tiger attack helicopter and NH90 utility helicopter procurements in a bid to save €4 billion ($5.2 billion) on major weapons programs.
TEL AVIV — Syria’s efforts to modernize its air defenses are increasing the threat of a conflict suddenly erupting between Israel and its enemies, according to Israel’s air force chief, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel.
Recent international maritime countermine exercises highlight the benefits of unmanned vehicles for those types of missions, military naval officials say, but the underlying tactics for such work remain the same. Unmanned systems and their accompanying technology are making it possible for naval countermine operations to continue for much longer, continuous periods of time. “The biggest benefit [is] they’re much more persistent,” says Vice Adm. John Miller, commander of U.S. Navy Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces.
The U.S. Navy successfully completed tests of the Block 2 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) earlier this month at the service’s Pacific Missile Test Range. Missiles were launched May 10 from a Self Defense Test Ship operated by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme and intercepted turbojet-powered targets emulating enemy anti-ship cruise missiles. The Navy completed another test May 12, successfully firing two more missiles.
CYBERSPACE PROGRESS: At the House Armed Services intelligence and emerging threats subcommittee markup of the 2014 defense policy bill last week, Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) praised the military’s progress in protecting the U.S.
The Pentagon’s latest cost report on the stealthy F-35 shows no change in the high price of estimated flying hour usage or total lifetime sustainment, two areas of great interest to operators in the U.S. and abroad.
Spy movies and drone imagery may give people the idea that the problem of night vision has been definitively solved, but in fact the past few years have seen a vigorous three-way technology conflict at the lower end of the market, where users need portable and wearable sensors and want to fit very small unmanned vehicles—and large fleets of trucks—with night-vision devices.
Commo. Stephen Braham Head of Global Ship Integrated Export Team, U.K. Trade & Investment, Defense & Security Organization Education: Engineering degrees (bachelor's and master's) from Royal Naval Engineering College, Royal Naval Staff College.
Recent technology advancements and risk reduction in the U.S Navy's proposed air and missile defense radar (AMDR) are slashing cost estimates by nearly two-thirds and making it more likely that the sensor suite will survive budget cuts. The technological strides and price cuts put the program on course to deliver a sensor suite relatively soon that not only protects ships against immediate and future missile threats, but helps vessels provide better ballistic missile defense (BMD) for allies.
A breakthrough thermal insulator could significantly reduce the heat generated by radio-frequency (RF) systems, increasing power and range. The achievement was announced by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) as part of its Near Junction Thermal Transport program. RF systems such as radar and communication devices use power amplifiers called monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC). These have gallium nitride (GaN) transistors to enhance RF performance.
Explosions do not disturb residents of Draguignan, the “artillery capital of France.” But a visitor to this southeastern city is surprised that the sound of an 18-ton Caesar self-propelled howitzer travels 20 km (12 mi.) from Camp de Canjuers, the biggest proving ground in Western Europe.
Scraping coatings off aircraft by hand will soon be a thing of the past at Hill AFB, Utah, which is deploying robots for this task in 2014. Concurrent Technologies Corp. of Johnstown, Pa., and Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics and Engineering Center in Pittsburgh developed six coating-removal robots under contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and Ogden Air Logistics Center. The robots use 6-kw fiber lasers for coating removal.
Shooting down unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is of less concern than countering their intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. This is the idea behind a program at Georgia Tech Research Institute, which develops integrated hardware devices that simulate sensors on enemy UAVs. The Threat Unmanned Devices Program, funded by the U.S. Army Threat Systems Management Office, assesses UAV countermeasures. The hardware simulates electro-optical infrared sensors, and systems for signals-intelligence intercepts and weapons jamming.
Unmanned platforms have many advantages and one major impediment: interoperability. It's difficult for personnel in one service to control robot systems fielded by another, owing to the use of proprietary operational software. This may change. The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) has developed the Common Control System (CCS), which uses software that reportedly allows any unmanned system to communicate and work with any other system in the military.
Israel Shipyards is expanding the Saar class of missile boats used by the country's navy and also sold to foreign customers. The company is making the ship a “mini-corvette,” with longer range—beyond 3,000 nm—and sophisticated defensive capabilities. The move addresses the need for Israel and other nations to project power well beyond their territorial waters.
The complexity of software still to be integrated, and the potential impact of sequestration cuts on development, are calling into question whether the full combat capability will be ready when the Lockheed Martin F-35 formally enters service with the U.S. Air Force and Navy.
