LOS ANGELES — Refinements to the Lockheed Martin F-35B’s integrated propulsion and flight control will be tested in a second series of sea trials with the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) fighter beginning this week on the USS Wasp.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Sequestration is likely to cause the Pentagon to take a major near-term hit in its procurement and research and development accounts that will eventually taper off once force structure reductions are put into place, says Frank Kendall, the Defense Department’s acquisition czar. “If the overall sequestration cut is 10%, we can look at numbers about twice that for R&D and procurement,” he said during an Aug. 13 speech hosted by the 16th Annual Space and Missile Defense Conference here.
Click here to view the pdf U.S. Navy Procurement Funding Shifts:2013 Plan for Fiscal 2014 Compared to Actual 2014 Request (Losers) (Then-year dollars in millions) U.S.
A budget crunch brought on by sequestration has pressured the U.S. Air Force to discontinue operations of its Space Fence, which has been surveilling objects in space since 1961. The Air Force Space Surveillance System (AFSSS), dubbed the Space Fence (and formerly operated by the Navy), consists of three transmitters and six receivers designed to form a radar line, or fence, across the 33rd parallel along the southern U.S.
NEW DELHI — India’s defense ministry says the Indian air force (IAF) has not yet made any formal request to buy more Swiss-made Pilatus PC-7 MK2 trainers instead of waiting for the country’s indigenous basic trainer aircraft (BTA) project to deliver. “As far as the ministry of defense is concerned, that project [the Indian-made BTA] is still on,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony says.
NEW DELHI — India has activated the atomic reactor on board its first indigenous nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, the INS Arihant, enabling it to undergo sea trials. A defense ministry official says the 83 megawatt pressurized water reactor on Arihant has been started. “Now the submarine will undergo extensive sea trials before being made operational,” the official says. INS Arihant has been undergoing trials at the Indian navy’s submarine base in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, in southern India.
LACKING MOTIVATION: Analyst Byron Callan of Capital Alpha Partners doubts that recent U.S. embassy closings and the disclosure of an al Qaeda plot in Yemen will be enough to compel Capitol Hill lawmakers to find a political solution to sequestration. “We don’t see the latest threat as catalytic,” Callan says. “Terrorist actions and threats have become part of the security landscape.” As proof, he noted that defense company stocks did not see perceptible changes after the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S.
PALM BEACH, Fla. — As with UAV programs, unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) require a strong foundation of modeling and testing to make them operate safely and efficiently. The maritime environment offers some benefits and presents some challenges for monitoring unmanned systems. For example, unlike UAV testing in the continental U.S., which has sparked some controversy and often requires special FAA permits and approvals, coastal U.S. UUV testing is much more flexible.
NAVY The Boeing Co., Mesa, Ariz., was awarded a $92,278,416 modification (P00025) to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, option-filled, foreign military sales (FMS) contract (W58RGZ-09-C-0147) for the procurement of Block III AH-64D helicopters and associated support. This FMS contract is in support of Taiwan. The cumulative total face value of this contract is $716,740,952. Fiscal 2009 procurement funds are being obligated on this award. The Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
NEW DELHI — India’s 45,000-ton Vikrant aircraft carrier was floated out of its building bay at the state-owned Cochin shipyard in the southern state of Kerala Aug. 12, marking the end of the initial phase of construction on India’s first homegrown carrier.
Rockwell Collins’ largest acquisition to date—purchasing communications and systems engineering provider, Arinc, for $1.39 billion from the Carlyle Group—will give the avionics maker its own end-to-end communications link between the ground and the flight deck, a connection that is fundamental to the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).
Using the Kaman K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter, Lockheed Martin has completed another round of demonstrations of technologies for autonomous resupply, including obstacle avoidance and dynamic replanning. The K-Max is being used as the testbed for the Autonomous Technologies for Unmanned Air Systems (ATUAS) joint capability technology demonstration. The initial demo, in April 2012, involved a ground beacon allowing loads to be delivered to within 3 meters.
The U.S. Army is preparing to send its first deployment of Boeing AH-64E Apaches to Afghanistan 2014. The first of two units thus far to form for the new model attack helicopter — the 1-229th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion (ARB) based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington — will deploy to Afghanistan in the summer of 2014, says Col. Jeff Hager, U.S. Army project manager for the Apache program.
MOSCOW — Russian Helicopters has unveiled a training version of Mil Mi-28 attack helicopter, dubbed Mi-28UB, which made its first demo flight at the Rostvertol flight test center in Rostov-on-Don Aug. 9. At the end of August, the Mi-28UB (Uchebno-Boevoy, Training and Combat) will be displayed at MAKS 2013 air show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.
The U.S. Navy’s submarine force and Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Corona Division have developed a new, patent-pending tool to maintain its fiber-optic systems. This tool lets the Navy compare fiber-optic power test meters throughout their entire range of output against a known standard, allowing the fleet to perform reliable and accurate measurements without have to outsource the work.
NEW DELHI — The U.S. Department of Defense has notified the U.S. Congress of a possible sale of 145 M777 155-mm towed howitzers to India. The estimated cost of the deal is $885 million, which also includes providing associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) says.
Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy says it will no longer advertise certain variants of its Spacebus 4000 communications satellite as free of components and materials controlled by the U.S. Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Lockheed Martin is working on upgrades for its Marlin autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) that could make it a candidate for future long-endurance unmanned undersea missions the U.S. Navy has in mind for its planned large-diameter unmanned undersea vehicle (LDUUV) program.
Boeing's presence at the 2013 Dubai Airshow will showcase the company's industry partnerships in the Middle East and highlight its defence and commercial products and services designed to meet Middle East requirements.
