NASA plans to launch a program in fiscal 2014 to accelerate dramatically the development and certification of new composite materials and structures for aircraft, but also is re-evaluating its rotary-wing research with the aim of phasing out lower-priority work. The agency’s aeronautics research budget is planned to stay essentially flat to fiscal 2018, slipping just 0.6% to $565.7 million in the fiscal 2014 request. Funding is planned to stay at that slightly lower level for the rest of the five-year budget plan.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Army says network-centric technology is its biggest “investment priority,” but it still comes in behind combat vehicle development among research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) projects in the service’s fiscal 2014 budget request unveiled April 10 at the Pentagon.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is nearly finished negotiating the details of its first two contracts providing launch services to the U.S. Air Force. Talks for its Falcon 9 v1.1 launch of NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (Dscovr) satellite and a Falcon Heavy flight lofting the Air Force’s Space Test Program (STP-2) satellite should be wrapped up by the end of the month, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell tells Aviation Week. Dscovr is slated to boost in November 2014, with STP-2 to follow in September 2015.
The U.S. Army is halting procurement of the Light Utility Helicopter program after fiscal 2014, cutting the number of UH-72s Lakotas it planned to buy by just over 30. The Army, which has said it would buy 346 UH-72 Lakotas from EADS North America (EADS NA) through 2016, has cut the proposed fiscal 2014 procurement to only 10 aircraft from an original 31. The service also dropped the final ten aircraft from its fiscal 2015 plan, for a net reduction of 31 aircraft from the overall buy.
The French defense procurement agency DGA has cleared the laser-guided AASM modular air-to-ground weapon for use with the country’s air force and navy.
The top brass for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps started the Navy League’s 2013 Sea Air Space Symposium with a drumbeat in support of the nation’s amphibious fleet during the event’s opening panel of maritime service chiefs. “The number-one thing I need — it’s amphibious ships,” says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, U.S. chief of naval operations (CNO). “We need to move them into the fleet. We need them badly.”
LONDON — The Netherlands government has decided to place its two F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters into storage while it decides whether to adopt the aircraft for its future fighter needs.
BUDGET COVERAGE: When the U.S. government’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal is released on April 10, Aviation Week Intelligence Network subscribers should be sure to visit http://www.aviationweek.com/awin/USBudget2014.aspx, which will feature all the latest budgetary and programmatic news, data and analysis grouped together in one place. To allow for the most up-to-date budget news to be included, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report subscribers should expect a delay in the arrival of their issue dated April 11.
Lockheed Martin has taken the wraps off its contender for the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) program to field a small fleet of carrier-capable unmanned aircraft. Unveiled at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space show in Washington, the stealthy, tailless flying-wing design strongly resembles Lockheed’s private-venture Polecat and once-classified RQ-170 Sentinel long-endurance UAVs.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Protection of U.S. and friendly assets in space remains a top priority for the U.S. Air Force, though budget pressure may determine the pace of progress in this area, says Gen. William Shelton, Air Force Space Command chief.
The “old paradigm” of major-powers nuclear arms control is dead, and yet it will take several more iterations of deals between Russia and the U.S., as well as smaller nuclear powers like India and Pakistan, before another major arms reduction agreement is reached, let alone one including several countries, key officials and analysts opined April 8.
COLORADO SPRINGS — The senior officer overseeing U.S. Air Force Space Command says he refuses to lose sight of looking toward a future of more resilient architectures for spacecraft and launchers, though the near-term focus is on slicing $508 million from its operations and maintenance budget through the end of September.
LONDON — The Swedish armed forces have begun operational use of four newly purchased UH-60M Black Hawks in Afghanistan. The Swedish Air Element, based at Camp Marmal near Mazar-e-Sharif, officially began operations with the Black Hawk, locally designated Hkp 16, on April 1, following the deployment of the aircraft in mid-March. The Swedish Black Hawks are being used for medevac duties and troop transport.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Lockheed Martin will begin anechoic tests this week of the GPS non-flight satellite testbed (GNST), an engineering, manufacturing and development pathfinder for the future GPS III constellation.
The four-star admiral in charge of U.S. Pacific Command says that assuming Asia-Pacific requirements are prioritized in current and future Pentagon budgets, he expects the command will be able to fulfill its duties.
LONDON — Midlife updates and plans to deal with obsolescence in the AH-64 Apache attack and EH101 Merlin transport helicopter fleets are the top priorities for the U.K.’s Joint Helicopter Command. Air Vice Marshal Carl Dixon, commander of the U.K.’s Joint Helicopter Command (JHC), told Aviation Week that the Apache was now the Army’s “premier league fire contribution” and that the aircraft had more than proven itself in Afghanistan.
As U.S. forces pull back from Afghanistan, the K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter is busily carrying equipment and supplies that the Pentagon does not want to leave behind, contractor Lockheed Martin says. “As we withdraw, we’re seeing a lot of utility,” says Jon McMillen, Lockheed K-Max director of business development. “Most of that is for retrieval — bringing equipment back to take home,” he said April 5 during a Lockheed briefing of programs in advance of the 2013 Navy League Sea-Air-Space Symposium.
STAY TUNED: There will be “quite a bit” of information about the U.S.’s “limited” ballistic missile defenses in the fiscal 2014 budget request from the Obama administration on April 10, according to Rose Gottemoeller, acting undersecretary for arms control and international security at the U.S. State Department.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Boeing is developing a family of three small satellites ranging from 4 to 1,000 kg (9 to 2,200 lb.) in size to whet the growing appetite of commercial and government customers interested in pursuing lower-cost space platforms.
NEW DELHI — India’s ambitious Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract is facing hurdles at the negotiation table, as sources say Dassault it seeking to absolve itself of responsibility for the copies of its Rafale fighter to be assembled in India by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). Under an agreement, the Indian air force (IAF) is likely to get 18 Rafale aircraft from Dassault Aviation in fly-away condition.
