Despite spending the last year railing against across-the-board budget cuts, many in the Republican Party are now ready to accept them—at least in the short term. Before the presidential election, sequestration had been front and center for Republicans, particularly those on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC).
Boeing and Cassidian have been shortlisted in a competition to provide an off-the-shelf shipborne unmanned aerial system to assist the U.K. Royal Navy in its anti-piracy missions.
U.S. lawmakers representing helicopter communities are lauding a provision in the final 2013 defense authorization measure they say prohibits the Pentagon from entering new contracts with Rosoboronexport, the Russian arms provider.
LONDON — The Sultanate of Oman has finally signed a long-awaited contract to buy 12 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft. The deal, signed in Oman on Dec. 21, also includes eight Hawk jet trainers and in-service support. In all, the deal is worth £2.5 billion ($4.06 billion). Manufacturing of the aircraft is due to begin in 2014, with first deliveries in 2017. The new Typhoons will replace Oman’s aging fleet of Sepecat Jaguars, while the new Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) are likely to replace the fleet of Hawk 100s used for training.
Five years ago, the idea of easing export controls on commercial satellites was politically unthinkable. That mindset has changed during the last half-decade, as the idea that those restrictions are harming both national security and the U.S. industrial base has gradually gained traction. And now, during a year in which the U.S. Congress barely passed even routine bills, lawmakers came together to shed long-standing restrictions on the export of commercial satellites.
As the U.S. migrates away from the ground-war mindset that colored most of the Pentagon thinking through the past decade, the Navy sees a potential resurgence in submarine programs similar to what the service enjoyed during the Cold War. That king of renaissance should help provide support for future, relatively expensive Navy submarine programs, such as the SSBN(X) ballistic missile sub replacement fleet.
Documents released after the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied a protest filed by Sierra Nevada Corp. to prevent the U.S. Air Force recompeting its Light Air Support (LAS) contract depict a shambolic source selection and potential bias toward Sierra Nevada, offering the Embraer Super Tucano.
It's a classic chicken or egg dilemma. Small satellites are not being built because there is no cheap way to launch them, and small launchers are not being built because there are no satellites to launch on them. So the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is attacking the problem from both directions simultaneously, with dual programs to develop $500,000 imaging satellites of less than 100 lb. and air-launched boosters to place them in low Earth orbit for $1 million a flight.
Lawmakers are constantly caught between balancing the needs of the federal government while staying true to the voters at home. Such is the case in this year's fight to maintain the Air National Guard (ANG) and Reserve, which lends a hand to the active duty military while also standing ready to serve all 50 states. Congress balked at the Air Force's initial proposal to cut 287 aircraft and 11,600 personnel, ordering a freeze on retiring or transferring aircraft.
A year-end deadline for the Air Force and Navy to disclose the target initial operational capability (IOC) dates for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was extended until June 1, 2013, in the last days of congressional conference negotiations over the 2013 defense budget. Programs are considered to have reached the benchmark once they complete initial operational test and evaluation.
The U.K. could put maritime patrol back on the agenda, more than two years after the capability was lost through the cancellation of the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 program. Findings of a study carried out by the House of Commons's Defense Committee inquiry into future maritime surveillance will be handed to the Military Capability Board in April and options that “merit further investigation” will be examined prior to the next Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR), due to be carried out by the Ministry of Defense in 2015.
After more than a year-long delay, the U.S. Air Force has begun training its instructor pilots for the F-35 at Eglin AFB, Fla., joining its Marine Corps colleagues who have already started producing pilots. Gen. Edward Rice, who heads the Air Education and Training Center, gave the long-awaited nod to begin pilot training during a visit last week to the base, where the first F-35 schoolhouse has been established.
In November 2008, the year Wanda Austin became CEO of The Aerospace Corp., Aviation Week & Space Technology featured her on the cover with a three-page profile inside. “The fact that Austin is a woman and an African-American is impossible to miss,” the magazine wrote.
Korean Air Lines said last month it aimed to be Asia's strongest aerospace company by 2020. Even by South Korean standards, the assertion seemed a little ambitious, since the company's aircraft and space division is not a fifth of the size of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' aerospace company, and hardly compares with the sprawling Avic group in China.
With belts tightening across Europe, the EU is pushing the case for increased defense cooperation among its 27 member states, particularly when it comes to enhancing military capabilities in support of joint security and defense operations. EU leaders in December said the continent's economic crisis ultimately could force Euro-skeptics to share planning and development of key defense requirements in an effort to save money and facilitate interoperability on the battlefield.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), currently the longest-serving woman in Congress, will now become the first woman to lead one of what is perhaps its most powerful panels, the Senate Appropriations Committee. Mikulski takes control of the committee after the recent death of Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), who had chaired the full committee since 2009 and led Democrats on the defense subcommittee since 1989. And she will serve alongside Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), who will lead Republicans on the panel.
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have met two major milestones for the F-35 this year just under the wire—establishing a contract for the next production lot that targets an incremental cost decrease and laying the foundation to start training pilots in January. Both are major steps forward for the $400 billion Joint Strike Fighter program managed by Lockheed Martin. But both came only after months of wrangling.
Teeing up an issue for Congress in 2013, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), have introduced a bill that would push the FAA to begin setting privacy rules for the use of UAVs in civilian airspace. UAVs can carry “infrared thermal imagers, radar and wireless network 'sniffers,' with the capability to collect sensitive detailed information while operating in the skies above,” according to Markey. As such, he is seeking to regulate their use.
Bell Helicopter has signed an agreement with the Turkish government for the supply of five Bell 429 rotor craft. The 429s will be operated by the Turkish General Directorate of Forestry (TGDF) to protect forest resources and coordinate firefighting operations.
One of the toughest aspects of making laws is balancing the needs of the federal government while staying true to the voters at home. Such is the case in this year’s fight to maintain the Air National Guard (ANG) and Reserve, the force lending a hand to the active duty military while serving all 50 states.
LONDON — AirTanker, the consortium providing the U.K. with new aerial refueling tanker aircraft, has secured its Civil Aviation Authority Air Operating Certificate (AOC) and taken delivery of its third aircraft. The organization received the Airbus A330 Voyager tanker on Dec. 19 from Cobham in Bournemouth, which had converted the A330 into the tanker configuration. The arrival now means AirTanker has three aircraft — two tankers and a single standard A330 that is being used for transport or trooping flights.
