MUNICH — Airbus Military has set itself a target of obtaining two export contracts for the new Airbus A400M Atlas airlifter by 2016. CEO Domingo Urena-Raso, who will shortly become head of the Military Aircraft division of Airbus Defense and Space when EADS changes its name to Airbus in the New Year, said he was hopeful of achieving at least one contract in 2014 and another in 2015. These would be allocated for the first export production slots for the airlifter, which are due to become available in 2017.
As the more information emerges about the recent fraud case involving overseas port service—or “husbanding”—contracts, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has detailed a series of efforts the service is taking to prevent such abuses in the future.
Fixed-wing aircraft slated for air-warfare missions rank as the number one aviation and shipbuilding investment over the coming 10 years for U.S. partners and allies in the Asia-Pacific, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of data provided by Avascent Analytics.
LONDON — The Chief of the U.K. Defense Staff has warned that overspending on equipment is leading to shortages in manpower to train on and use the matériel. In a December speech to the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI), Gen. Sir Nicholas Houghton, who became chief of the defense staff in July, said current levels of equipment spending could lead to a “strategically incoherent force structure.”
BRUSSELS — European Union governments have agreed to move forward, albeit slowly, on the joint development of key defense capabilities, including air-to-air refueling, a next-generation UAV, satellite communications and cybersecurity. During a two-day meeting in Brussels Dec. 19-20, the heads of state of the 28-member EU also discussed—but did not approve—joint funding of some military activities, such as those led by France in the Central African Republic.
Honeywell is detecting “modest improvement” in commercial aftermarket sales as 2013 wraps up, giving the company confidence that the stagnation of the last three years could be supplanted by a steeper uptick in demand. The company is projecting 3%-5% organic growth in total 2014 aftermarket sales, driven by a bump in air transport and regional (ATR) flight hours and continued solid demand for business aviation retrofits, modifications, and upgrades (RMU). Honeywell provided the details during its 2014 outlook presentation to analysts Dec. 17.
Kellstrom finished consolidating and segregating its business into commercial and defense units, and it expects the first quarter of 2014 to start showing the results of those efforts, as well as its “leaner and meaner side,” says Roscoe Musselwhite, Kellstrom Materials president. Kellstrom purchased AirLiance Materials in May, which subsequently involved not only consolidating and streamlining its commercial parts distribution business, but also all of the operations functions, such as IT migration and vendor code and invoice harmonization.
Sikorsky has revealed the unmanned Rotor Blown Wing concept it is designing with Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works under Phase 1 of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (Darpa) vertical-takeoff-and-landing experimental aircraft (VTOL X-Plane) program.
The U.K., which has hoped to sell Eurofighter Typhoons to the United Arab Emirates, has learned that any potential deal has been halted. “The UAE have advised that they have elected not to proceed with these proposals at this time,” says a note to prime contractor BAE Systems's investors. The U.K. had been negotiating with the UAE for the sale of about 60 aircraft, with Prime Minister David Cameron traveling to the Dubai Airshow last month in the hopes of lobbying for BAE's bid to sell the fighter jets.
TERROR CONCERNS: The Moroccan government is boosting its defense budget in response to the risk of attacks from native terrorists and the arms race with neighboring Algeria, according to a new report from Strategic Defense Intelligence (SDI). The country spent $16.8 billion on defense between 2009-2013, and by 2018 that number is expected to grow to $20.5 billion. The country’s overall defense budget is expected to gradually increase from $3.8 billion in 2014 to $4.5 billion in 2018.
The Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2013 notwithstanding, the top civilian and uniformed leaders of the Pentagon told reporters there Dec. 19 that the majority of so-called sequestration budget cuts remain in effect and that Washington faces tough choices about national security spending.
Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 8 is training for NASA’s unmanned Exploration Flight Test-One (EFT-1) for its Orion spacecraft, scheduled for early next year off the coast of Southern California. HSC-8’s aircraft will launch from San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship LPD-22 USS San Diego and assist the crews that will recover the craft into the ship’s well-deck.
Rockwell Collins’ Control Technologies division has submitted a patent application for a Sun- and star-sensing system that could augment or substitute for an aircraft’s position, attitude and heading avionics in a GPS-denied environment. The technology was developed in part by the former senior director of Rockwell Collins Control Technologies, David Vos, who left the company in May 2012 to become a “technology entrepreneur.”
MUNICH — EADS Astrium has signed an agreement with Inmarsat to resell commercial and military broadband capacity on the London-based fleet operator’s new constellation of all-Ka-band Global Xpress satellites, giving them privileged access to the globally available mobile broadband network.
The U.K., which has hoped to sell Eurofighter Typhoons to the UAE, has learned that any potential deal is at least on hold. “The UAE have advised that they have elected not to proceed with these proposals at this time,” says a note to prime contractor BAE Systems’s investors. The U.K. had been negotiating with UAE for the sale of about 60 aircraft, with Prime Minister David Cameron traveling to the Dubai air show in the hopes of lobbying for BAE’s bid to sell the fighter jets.
While the U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) has been attracting most of the attention in the Asia Pacific on its first deployment, aircraft carriers represent the real muscle behind the nation’s Pacific pivot, according to the service admiral charged with overseeing the fleet there. When it comes right down to it, Navy leaders say, nothing combines presence, power and flexibility on the sea like an aircraft carrier, and those ships will make the difference in the Asia Pacific.
Rockwell Collins’ Control Technologies division has submitted a patent application for a Sun- and star-sensing system that could augment or substitute for an aircraft’s position, attitude and heading avionics in a GPS-denied environment.
BUDGET PASSED: The U.S. Senate passed the so-called Ryan-Murray budget framework Dec. 18, sending the compromise to the White House to be signed into law. Senators voted 64-36 in favor of the bill, although several expressed criticism of the framework or their inability to amend it like most bills considered on the floor. The agreement was announced last week by House and Senate Budget committee chairmen Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen.
