Success in the Army’s growing catalog of work in linking manned and unmanned aviation assets could lead the service to reduce is reliance on helicopters, potentially impacting the planned buys of Boeing Apache AH-64Es and future Armed Aerial Scouts.
Lockheed Martin is planning additional air- and ground-launched tests of its stealthy Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (Lrasm) under development for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the Office of Naval Research.
The Senate passed its budget resolution March 23 before leaving for its Easter and Passover recess, setting up the next phase in the ongoing battle over deficit reduction.
GROUND FORECAST: The West’s simultaneous withdrawal from Afghanistan and fiscal austerity efforts at home will eat into the MRO business for ground combat vehicles, according to one consulting group, but the industry may not see its worst fears realized. Visiongain sees the global military ground vehicle MRO market at $5.66 billion this year, and it should continue to achieve “strong and stable” growth.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Australia’s air force chief is still optimistic that his country will eventually order 100 Lockheed Martin F-35s, even though the government is currently looking at ordering 24 additional Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets in light of delays with F-35 development.
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a leading Republican on the panel are calling on President Obama to work with allies including Turkey to establish a “safe zone” in Syria. That includes the possibility of using Patriot missiles stationed in Turkey to shoot down aircraft or SCUD missiles in northern Syria, according to a March 21 letter from Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom’s first overseas deployment to Southeast Asia has been marred by two more power outages, the U.S. Navy says. The most recent two this week — including one March 21 — brings the outage total to three, all during the ship’s transit from Pearl Harbor to Guam en route to Singapore, says U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Darryn James.
TEL AVIV — Securing maritime Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) has become a big business for Israeli companies, particularly since the discovery of significant oil and gas reserves offshore in the Eastern Mediterranean, and developing the resources discovered within Israel’s EEZ could mean substantial growth in domestic offshore offshore security activities for Israel’s defense companies.
Speaking before what was very much a hometown crowd, leaders from the U.S. military, shipbuilding industry and Congress took turns March 21 touting the importance of Navy shipbuilding—and defense contracting in general—during an Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base Coalition breakfast. With the current U.S. Pacific Pivot focusing on Asia, the message was that the time is now to shore up the carrier fleet and general shipbuilding base.
Participants in a recent workshop on how to cut U.S. Air Force sustainment costs essentially concluded that the problem is not a lack of ideas, but a lack of leadership. The three-day workshop was convened last December by the National Academies to discuss Air Force weapon system sustainment costs and how science-and-technology (S&T) spending can help cut life-cycle costs.
SBIRS SEQUEL: The second Lockheed Martin Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) spacecraft is executing a series of six liquid apogee engine burns to raise it to geosynchronous orbit, following its March 20 launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for the U.S. Air Force. The payload aboard the A2100-based satellite is scheduled to be activated about 30 days after launch. Sbirs carries both scanning and staring infrared sensors for detecting missile launches.
CANBERRA and BEIJING — Operation of a relocated space-surveillance radar in Western Australia may be only the first step in expanded cooperation between the U.S. and Australia in space situational awareness. Separately, Australia also is looking at setting up an independent capability in the field, says a defense department spokeswoman in Canberra.
THE PENTAGON — While no program is guaranteed protection during these days of fiscal austerity, the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) acquisition plans are as safe as any other from substantial cuts, says Vice Adm. Richard Hunt, director of Navy staff and the head of the special LCS Council of service admirals.
Heavy-lift helicopter specialist Erickson Air-Crane is acquiring operators in the U.S. and Brazil in a move to diversify from its niche in firefighting into a global aviation services business. The acquisition of Oregon-based Evergreen Helicopter (EHI) and Air Amazonia of Brazil for up to $350 million will double Erickson’s revenues and operating earnings. The deals will also take the Portland, Ore.-based company into new commercial and government markets, halving its dependence on seasonal firefighting revenues.
Beechcraft is showing little sign of backing down from its fight for the Light Air Support (LAS) contract, filing suit in the Court of Federal Claims to object to the U.S. Air Force’s decision to move ahead with work on the program during a Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of the LAS contract award.
Obstacles challenge robots, but researchers at Harvard may overcome them by engineering robots to jump. Tests on silicone robots advance this capability. Robert Shepherd, a former postdoctoral researcher and now an assistant professor at Cornell, describes work that he and colleagues are conducting in the Feb. 6 Angewandte Chemie. The team uses controlled explosions generated by methane and oxygen to make a robot jump (see photo). The Y-shaped robot, with each limb about 6 in. long and less than 1 in. thick, leaps 12 in., at 13 fps.
The International Defense Exhibition—IDEX—in Abu Dhabi last month saw the first public appearance of the massive Multiple Cradle Launcher (MCL), a product of the Abu Dhabi-based Jobaria Defense Systems, which company officials told Aviation Week is in service with the United Arab Emirates army. The MCL uses an Oshkosh Defense 6 X 6 Heavy Equipment Transporter with an armored cab, pulling a 10-wheel trailer. On the trailer are mounted four multiple-rocket launchers, each with three modular pods of 20 122-mm rockets, for a total of 240 rockets.
The first clear photos of China's new ICBM appeared on Chinese web pages this month, probably taken by a motorist on his cell phone—a common way of revealing new Chinese weapons. The Dong Feng-41 (DF-41) is likely the first mobile Chinese ICBM to be equipped with multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles (MIRV), possibly 10. Citing a U.S. government official, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the DF-41 was tested from the Wuzhai (Xichang) missile test and space launch center last July.
