BAE Systems has won AUS$580 million ($532 million) worth of contracts to support the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) fleet of Hawk Mk. 127 training aircraft. The larger of the two contracts is an AUS$435 million maintenance, engineering, full logistics and training systems deal to support the RAAF’s 33 Hawk aircraft. According to the company, the contract, which began on July 1, will support the aircraft at two bases, Williamtown, New South Wales and at Pearce, Western Australia.
The Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator made its first arrested landing July 10 on the USS George Bush, the Navy has announced. It was the first arrested carrier landing by an unmanned, autonomous vehicle and the first by a completely tailless aircraft.
NEW BOSS: Italian defense and aerospace group Finmeccanica has appointed Giovanni de Gennaro as chairman to succeed Giuseppe Orsi. Gennaro, who is a former head of the Italian state police, was voted in during a shareholders meeting of Finmeccanica on July 4. Adm. Guido Venturoni was selected as vice chairman. Gennaro succeeds Orsi in the role of chairman only. Orsi, who was also CEO, departed the company in February following his arrest on charges of graft over the sale of 12 AW101 VIP helicopters to the Indian air force in 2010.
LONDON — Oil and gas operators could return their Eurocopter EC225s to service within weeks now that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified fixes to the bevel gear vertical shaft, a critical component in the main gearbox that drives lubrication pumps.
The U.S. and its national naval partners that operate in the Black Sea are getting the opportunity this month to refine their sea-basing platforms and tactics, especially as they pertain to non-combatant evacuation and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief, during Exercise Sea Breeze 2013.
The Pentagon’s modernization accounts may face disproportionate cuts of up to 20% in fiscal 2014 if Congress allows government-wide budget restrictions to remain in place, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel tells key lawmakers. If Congress fails to reverse current budget caps, the Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget request will be slashed by $52 billion, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned in a letter to key lawmakers July 10.
The Norwegian government has downselected AgustaWestland and Eurocopter to meet the needs of the country’s new search-and-rescue helicopter program. AgustaWestland, offering the AW101, and Eurocopter, offering an upgraded EC225, were shortlisted by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security from four manufacturers to meet the needs of the Norwegian All-Weather Search And Rescue Helicopter (NAWSARH) program on July 9.
TAIWAN STATUS: Congress is sending President Barack Obama a formal nudge to endorse Taiwan’s entry in the International Civil Aviation Organization. The move came as the Senate passed a resolution late last month, which had already passed in the other chamber, from House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.). “Helping Taiwan access the latest in civil aviation safety is the right thing to do, and it is in the best interest of public safety,” Royce said.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Navy has begun training on the AgustaWestland AW159 Lynx Wildcat maritime helicopter in preparation for its entry into service in late 2015.
NEW DELHI — In the first contract awarded to an Indian company to support its CH-47F Chinook, Boeing has chosen precision components maker Dynamatic Technologies Ltd. to supply aft pylon and cargo ramp assemblies for the tandem-rotor helicopter. The Indian air force (IAF) has opted for the CH-47F over the upgraded Russian Mi-26T2 to fulfill its requirement for 15 heavy-lift helicopters.
LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry has purchased a sixth Shadow R1 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. The purchase of the aircraft, a derivative of the Beechcraft King Air 350ER, was revealed in a written answer to a Parliamentary question on July 4 about the values of aircraft fleets operated by the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF).
Just months after Adm. Jonathan Greenert, U.S. chief of naval operations, said the Chinese anti-ship-ballistic-missile (ASBM) development “hasn’t affected the way we operate” in the Asia-Pacific, a new report says ASBM deployment is on the horizon and could affect not only regional U.S. operations but also geopolitical relationships in that part of the world.
The potential for a protest is looming as the losing bidders react to the U.S. Navy’s decision to award Raytheon a contract to begin development of the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pod to be carried by Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic-attack aircraft.
Click here to view the pdf 2014 U.S. Defense Markup: Changes To U.S. Navy Procurement RequestBy House And Senate Authorizers, House Appropriators (Sorted By Acct., Line Number; $ In Thousands) 2014 U.S. Defense Markup: Changes To U.S.
As the Pentagon this week begins to furlough civilian employees, including its embattled acquisition workforce, now comes a new internal report blaming most of the Defense Department’s epic acquisition mistakes and overruns on poor management and lack of workforce skills. Nevertheless, the June 28 report, titled “Performance of the Defense Acquisition System,” found that “a lot of the things we thought were important may not be as important as we believed,” according to defense acquisition czar Frank Kendall.
With the U.S. Army showing interest in high-speed rotorcraft to eventually replace its current helicopter fleets, the service’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) is seeking proposals for advanced rotors and control systems.
The U.S Army is planning to demonstrate the avionics architecture proposed for its Future Vertical Lift (FVL) family of advanced rotorcraft. The proof-of-concept demonstration in late 2014 with an initial, partial version of the Joint Common Architecture (JCA) is intended to show whether it delivers the software reusability required to meet targets for reduced costs and timescales for development and upgrades.
NEXT-GEN JAMMER: Raytheon has been selected to develop the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pod to replace the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system now carried by U.S Navy Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic-attack aircraft. The company has been awarded a $279.4 million contract for the 22-month technology development phase of the program. NGJ is planned to become operational in 2020. Under the TD phase, Raytheon will “design and build critical technologies that will be the foundational blocks of NGJ,” says Naval Air Systems Command.
French defense procurement agency DGA successfully completed the first qualification firing of the new MdCN (Missile de Croisiere Naval) naval cruise missile July 1 at the Biscarrosse test range in southwestern France. The test, which marks the fifth flight trial of the MdCN since DGA awarded the contract to missile-maker MBDA in late 2006, was representative of the missile launching from a frigate. It follows successful completion of the first launch of the MdCN in its submarine configuration in October of last year.
