The current fiscal crisis could prevent the U.S. from cashing in on the opportunity to build two Virginia-class attack submarines per year at an affordable price in a timely manner, according to ship- and sub-builder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII). “The industry has sized itself and invested to get to this point to build two per year,” says Michael Petters, CEO of HII, whose Newport News Shipbuilding unit shares submarine-building contracts with General Dynamics’ Electric Boat arm.
LONDON — Sweden has inked a contract to purchase the surface-launched IRIS-T missile as the basis for its new ground-launched air defense system. The country’s Defense Material Administration signed a SEK270 million ($42 million) contract with Germany’s Diehl Defense on Feb. 28 to deliver the IRIS-T SLS system as part of a program to upgrade Sweden’s air defense network. Diehl will deliver the IRIS-T missile, missile launching station and fire control systems, which will be operated by the Swedish army.
While the U.S. defense community remains focused on shaping budgets to deal with continuing resolutions and sequestration, officials also need to shift their attention more toward developing a better overall strategy to cope with the new financial realities, says Michael Petters, CEO of Huntington Ingalls Industries, the nation’s biggest military shipbuilder.
NEW DELHI — The bribery scandal surrounding India’s purchase of AW101 VVIP helicopters from Finmeccanica subsidiary AgustaWestland seems to have cast a shadow on the purchase of Black Shark torpedoes for the Indian navy from Whitehead Sistemi Subacquei (WASS), another company owned by the Italian defense conglomerate. Though the Indian government says the procurement has proceeded “in a transparent and fair manner,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony says, “The contract for procurement of Black Shark torpedoes has not yet been finalized.”
IED DETECTION: Cobham has been awarded a £16 million ($24 million) order to supply NATO forces with vehicle-mounted Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detection equipment. Cobham Antenna Systems of the U.K. is scheduled to deliver the systems this year. “Cobham will deliver enhanced Counter-IED detection capabilities, which can be safely deployed from within the protection of mine-resistant ambush-protected [MRAP] vehicles,” Fred Cahill, vice president of Cobham Antenna Systems, said in a statement.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Raytheon Co., El Segundo, Calif., was awarded contract (SPRA1-11-G-003X). The award is a firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract against a basic ordering agreement for $24,608,501 for F/A-18 components. Location of performance is California with an April 30, 2016 completion date. Using military services are Navy and Foreign Military Sale customers. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013 Navy Working Capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation Strategic Acquisition, Philadelphia.
Even as the Pentagon struggles under continuing resolution spending caps and the nation tries to figure out the immediate and long-term effects of sequestration, the U.S. Navy is investing more funding into one of its most sacred programs — the aircraft carrier fleet. The Navy awarded NASSCO Earl Industries — a General Dynamics unit based in Portsmouth, Va. — a $10.4 million modification to a previously awarded contract for the CVN-65 USS Enterprise ship terminal operation program in support of the ship’s deactivation.
Riyadh-based Al Raha Group for Technical Services has been awarded an estimated $45m extension of an existing contract for third party logistics, repair and return management services on Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) F-15s.
A Colorado congressman has asked the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to explain why it might furlough civilian employees. Rep. Douglas Lamborn (R), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, says he has received a “disturbing report” that the furloughs could be avoided even as the Pentagon seeks to comply with the $85 billion across-the-board reduction in government spending that started March 1.
EXPORT CONTROL: The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) is lauding news of the White House’s first round of proposed revisions to the U.S. Munitions List, calling it “a critical step toward enhancing American competitiveness in the export market.” Congress was formally notified of the coming changes March 8. “The inflexible application of export control restrictions coupled with their lack of clarity has long been a burden to the U.S.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office is questioning the methodology used by the U.S. Air Force in its decision to eschew competitive prototyping for its Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program, although the GAO acknowledges the decision may still be sound. The Air Force sought a waiver from competitive prototyping for the CRH program — formerly called the HH-60 Recapitalization — an effort to replace aging HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters in the wake of the 2009 cancellation of the Combat Search and Rescue replacement (CSAR-X) program.
While the Obama administration and federal lawmakers continue to parry and thrust over sequestration, a continuing resolution and other budgetary battles, the U.S. Navy is ponying up more investments for key programs — this time for ballistic missile submarine and next-generation aircraft carrier work worth about $329 million.
The MH-60R Seahawk (Romeo) helicopter program is seeing growing interest and solid bookings in foreign markets, according to prime contractor Lockheed Martin. Thirty-three of the planned total 289-aircraft Romeo buy is now secured, with recent sales of 24 to Australia and another nine to Denmark, notes Tom Kane, director of naval helicopter programs for Lockheed Martin Missions Systems and Training, which is partnered with Sikorsky on Seahawk helicopter production.
LONDON — The Eurosam SAMP/T surface-to-air missile system has destroyed a representative theater ballistic missile during a test in France. The March 6 test saw a joint Italian and French team engage an aircraft-launched target using an Aster 30 missile fired from the Biscarosse missile test center on the Bay of Biscay coast.
AgustaWestland is testing a fan-in-wing, tilt-rotor demonstrator as a technology incubator for advanced rotorcraft concepts. Measuring several meters in wingspan, the “Project Zero” subscale demonstrator has been developed and flown in secret since 2011 at AgustaWestland’s Cascina Costa facility in Italy. Revealing the initiative at Heli-Expo, newly-installed CEO Daniele Romiti says the unconventional vehicle represents how the manufacturer is “thinking today of how we could fly tomorrow.”
LAS VEGAS — Sergei Mikheyev, general designer of the Kamov Design Bureau, has revealed that the Russian helicopter company secretly designed the baseline version of the Z-10 attack helicopter for China in the mid-1990s.
TEL AVIV — The radar used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the first Gulf War has undergone renovation in the U.S. for nearly 30 technical modifications that improve its performance, safety and maintenance. A ceremony held last week introduced the “Radar 120” of the Patriot system in the IDF air defense — a radar that had been refurbished in a specially dedicated U.S. military program. The radar will now enter operational service in Israel in the PAC-2 missile batteries of the air defense wing.
EADS CEO Tom Enders believes certification of new aircraft programs likely will become more difficult following the recent troubles surrounding the Boeing 787 program.
The U.S. Air Force’s decision to move away from the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk program has not swayed the Navy’s allegiance to its $11.4 billion Triton unmanned aircraft program, which is based on the Global Hawk platform, says Vice Adm. Mark Skinner, military deputy to the Navy acquisition secretary.
