interested party: Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) would like to replace the late Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) as the chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, a congressional aide and industry source tell Aviation Week. If he is appointed, it would be a somewhat surprising move, as Durbin has not been a forceful voice on the committee, although he represents a state where Boeing has a strong presence.
BEIJING — China has declared its Beidou satellite navigation system fully operational, although the service remains limited to most of the Asia-Pacific region. The operating office says it is “accelerating” construction of the system, but repeats its longstanding commitment to achieve global coverage by about 2020; no earlier possibility is mentioned.
The key to making the next generation of ballistic missile submarines survivable and even more valuable in future decades will be to design the vessels with enough flexibility for later technological improvements, says Rear Adm. Barry Bruner, director of submarine warfare. Bruner likens the effort to the commercial industry for everyday transportation.
LONDON — The British government is to spend £160 million ($256 million) on the Thales Watchkeeper UAV over the next three years, but is unable to say when the much-delayed system will finally enter service. The British army is buying 54 Watchkeeper WK450 air vehicles, a modified variant of the Elbit Hermes 450 UAV along with 15 ground control stations as part of its Tactical UAV requirement. As part of the procurement, the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MoD) is spending £73 million, £59 million and £28 million, respectively, over the next three financial years.
After years of buying its small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) from AeroVironment, the U.S. Army has qualified four additional companies to compete for future procurements. Indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) umbrella contracts have been awarded to Altavian, Elbit USA, IATech and Lockheed Martin, in addition to incumbent AeroVironment.
Turkish Basic Trainer Aircraft Hurkus 350 which was designed and manufactured by TAI to meet the training and Light Attack/Armed reconnaissance aircraft requirements of Turkey's armed forces, successfully made its maiden flight at TAI's premises in Ankarathis week.
U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) delivered two 60-meter Offshore Support Vessels (OSVs) to the Iraq navy at the Umm Qasr naval facility on Dec. 19. The two OSVs were procured as part of the U.S. Navy’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. The vessels will help reconstitute Iraq’s ability to enforce maritime sovereignty and security in the Northern Arabian Gulf. Bolstering Iraqi naval capability has become a priority in the wake of the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces and related military resources.
Democrats in the House and Senate have named the anticipated new members of congressional committees. In the Senate, Mark Begich (Alaska) joins the appropriations committee. Maize Hirono (Hawaii) is likely to join the armed services committee, along with other freshmen Tim Kaine (Va.) and Angus King (Maine).
AIR FORCE FedCon/South Bay Joint Venture, San Antonio, Texas, (FA3089-13-D-0001) is being awarded a $75,000,000 multiple award construction contract for general construction category to include maintenance, repair, alteration, mechanical, electrical, heating/air conditioning, demolition, painting, paving and earthwork. The location of the performance is Randolph AFB, Texas. The work is expected to be completed by Jan. 4, 2018. The contracting activity is 902 CONS/LGCA, Randolph AFB, Texas.
The Pentagon wants to improve the way it audits closeouts of major contracts to curb financial risks to the Defense Department. The department has a large volume of contracts that have not been closed on time, confirms a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, noting that closing a contract includes tasks such as verifying that the goods and services were provided and making final payment to the contractor.
LONDON — Airbus Military has confirmed that it has been selected as the preferred bidder for the Indian air force’s (IAF) aerial refueling tanker program. India is discussing the purchase of six aircraft in a deal worth around $1 billion. India selected the Airbus A330 multirole tanker transport (MRTT) aircraft over the Russian-built Ilyushin Il-78 tanker aircraft, a variant of the Il-76 transport plane already in service with the IAF.
ABOARD THE USS FREEDOM — At near 40 kt. the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom creates a “rooster tail” of water out of its stern strong enough to swamp small boats and knock people off the vessels. “The rooster tail is a weapon,” says Joe Shifflett, who manages the LCS Navy training center in San Diego. Cruisers and destroyers have used wakes to disrupt small craft in the past, but neither of those vessels — in fact, nothing else in the U.S. Navy fleet — creates the hydrant-like spray the way an LCS can.
LONDON — Finmeccanica arm Alenia Aermacchi has been awarded a $140 million contract to provide logistic support to the Israeli Air Force’s M-346 jet trainers. The contract, awarded by Elbit Systems on Jan. 2, will see the two companies jointly performing the logistics support contract for the training aircraft including supply and maintenance and overhaul of spare parts for the M-346s, 30 of which were ordered by the Israeli Air Force in July 2012.
President Barack Obama is nominating former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as the next defense secretary and White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan as the next CIA director. The battle lines over Hagel’s nomination are already being drawn, as at least two no votes from senators were registered before Obama’s pick was official.
The Pentagon is facing a “confluence of unfortunate events,” says the Pentagon’s top budget official, including the possibility of sequestration, a full-year continuing resolution and the need to protect funding for the war in Afghanistan.
A new “block buy” deal for the U.S. Air Force to buy the next two satellites designed by Lockheed Martin to provide nuclear-hardened communications for the president and military commanders is estimated to save the government almost $1.5 billion. But the cost of each Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite, used for routine secure communications globally as well as presidential command and control of nuclear forces, still exceeds the $1 billion mark.
SUSTAINED: The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Comptroller General this month sustained a protest by Kollsman, an Elbit Systems of America company based in McLean, Va., of a Navy award to L-3 Communications for handheld laser markers. Kollsman challenged the Navy’s evaluation of price and L-3’s past performance. “Because we find that the agency failed to adequately support and document its past performance evaluation of L-3, we recommend that the agency re-evaluate L-3’s past performance,” GAO says in its decision.
NEW DEHLI — India’s armed forces will soon field advanced multi-caliber artillery guns as part of their modernization drive. The guns, being developed by a unit of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), will fulfill requirements of the Indian army for loading and firing both small and large munitions, DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat says. Each artillery gun will feature multiple barrels for loading and firing different sizes of shells.
Unmanned vehicle operations could benefit from research and development of more efficient ways to compress sensor data, according to a recent report by the so-called Jason group, the independent scientific advisory panel that provides consulting services to the U.S. government on matters of defense science and technology.
