It is still far too early to tell, but at least one Capitol Hill advocate for American manufacturing is forecasting near-term congressional action that could restrict China’s access to the U.S. marketplace, particularly federal-related acquisitions. If so, such moves could affect several western companies, which have reached out to China as both a commercial provider and marketplace over the last two decades.
NASA has awarded $38 million in contracts to four companies to address “system technology gaps that are exposed by the operational challenges” of the next-generation air traffic control system (NextGen).
TEL AVIV — Seeing future Syrian S-300 surface-to-air missiles as a threat to its own airspace, Israel has pledged to take preventative action. Fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles or through covert sabotage on assembly points could disable “S-300 missiles and similar weapons before becoming operational,” says retired army general and National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror to European diplomats.
Sequestration has failed to curb the U.S. Navy’s desire to bolster its Aegis-equipped destroyer fleet — the service awarded contract deals this week worth about $6.2 billion for new destroyers that will equipped with the combat system and able to perform ballistic missile defense (BMD) missions. The Navy awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) a $3.3 billion fixed-price-incentive firm target (FPIF) contract for the design and construction of five DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class ships, one each in fiscal 2013-2017.
ARLINGTON, Va. — After more than a decade of proving its modeling and simulation worth for the U.S. Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite constellation, Los Angeles-based Scalable Network Technologies is looking to expand its Modeling and Evaluation Environment (M2E2) into other military applications.
ARLINGTON, Va. — A California-based company is developing a modeling system that it says will help the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and other services in their “war against rust and rot” being waged to save aircraft, ships and other equipment. San Marcos-based GCAS is developing the Accelerated Corrosion Expert Simulator (ACES), a simulation and modeling analysis system for predicting aircraft and ground vehicle structure degradation due to corrosion.
NEW DELHI — Pilatus plans to establish a manufacturing facility in India, as the country looks at acquiring more aircraft from the Swiss aircraft maker. The facility will initially manufacture airframes for its single-engine turboprop PC-12 aircraft. “This will be our third support facility for PC-12 aircraft, the other two being in Portugal and Poland. It will be part of our offset commitment in India,” says Pilatus Vice President Jim Roche. Plans call for shipping the airframes to Switzerland for final assembly.
U.S. AIR FORCE United Technologies Corp., East Hartford, Conn., has been awarded a $28,589,240 Delivery Order for two F135-PW-100 conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) ground test engines. Work will be performed at East Hartford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2014. Fiscal year 2012 Research and Development funds are being obligated on this award. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/LPAK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity. (F33657-99-D-2051 0031)
U.S. aviation, aerospace and defense contractors are gearing up for a policy battle that hits close to home, as an effort to rein in federal contractor salary reimbursements is about to see a major boost. That is because the White House is asking Congress, through defense authorization committee hearings in June, to lower and extend a cap on the amount of contractor salaries that can be reimbursed by the government.
STEEP HILLS: Dozens of analysts from think tanks in Washington have issued a call for lawmakers to empower another round of military base realignment and closures, as well as significant changes to military pay and benefits, among other proposals to better spend precious federal dollars. But the analysts know they have a steep hill to climb inside the Capitol, as illustrated by Rep. Jim Cooper (Tenn.), a so-called Blue Dog Democrat.
ARLINGTON, Va. — There are no apparent delays that could hold up the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Aerial Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) program, says Frank Kendall, defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics. “I see no reason why that can’t go forward soon,” Kendall said June 3 during a luncheon keynote speech at the 2013 Navy Opportunity Forum.
NEW DELHI — India is in the final stages of developing a guided bomb and is likely to deploy the indigenously made kit on its fighter aircraft by the end of 2014. Developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), the “glide bombs” are designed to improve the accuracy of air-to-ground bombing by the Indian air force (IAF). Several tests have been performed both through simulation and flight tests over the last few years to reach the required performance levels of precision attacks, Ravi Gupta, DRDO spokesman, tells Aviation Week.
MARSEILLE, France — The French Securite Civile’s aerial firefighting department will evaluate the Air Tractor AT-802 this summer to see if the aircraft could replace the agency’s fleet of Conair-modified Grumman Trackers. Three pilots have been trained to fly the aircraft for this summer’s fire season and the aircraft are due to begin operations later this month, according to Thierry Laurent, the head of aviation bureau at Securite Civile, speaking to Aviation Week in Marseille on June 1.
SINGAPORE — Vietnam has a requirement for long-range maritime patrol aircraft, but it can’t buy the aircraft from the United States unless the U.S. government lifts a restriction banning the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party government.
SINGAPORE — New Zealand’s defense minister, Jonathan Coleman, is starting to question whether his ministry may need to implement further procurement reforms, particularly for large, complex military programs.
A Sikorsky/Boeing team has been selected to build and fly a high-speed rotorcraft under the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi Role technology demonstration (JMR TD) program. The coaxial-rotor compound helicopter demonstrator is planned to fly in 2017 under Phase 1 of the JMR TD. The Army hoped to award contracts for two competing demonstrators, and industry sources say AVX Aircraft also has been selected to negotiate a cost-sharing agreement. Other known bidders were Bell Helicopter, EADS North America and Piasecki Aircraft.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on May 29 told federal agencies to prepare their fiscal 2015 budget requests with three levels of spending in mind, including 5% and 10% cuts from the projections given in April with the 2014 request.
SEOUL — Strategic competition with Japan, China and Russia is at least as strong a motivation behind South Korea’s F-X Phase 3 program for 60 fighters as dealing with the North Korean threat, according to government officials in Seoul.
