LONDON — The first AW101 heavy helicopters for the Indian air force’s VVIP contract are being made ready for delivery. The first two AW101s are being prepared at London’s Stansted Airport for air freighting to India on board an Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft in the next few days. AgustaWestland is continuing to build Indian air force AW101s at the company’s factory at Yeovil in Somerset, the center of production for the type.
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Services Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo., (FA8823-13-C-0002) is being awarded a $104,205,172 firm-fixed-price contract for Global Positioning Systems control segment sustainment. The location of the performance is Colorado Springs. Work is expected to be completed by June 30, 2019. The contracting activity is SMC/PKP, Peterson AFB, Colo.
GOOD NEWS: A new analysis of 11 major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) by congressional auditors trying to see how the Pentagon is carrying out the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 finds that the landmark law has reinforced early attention to requirements, cost and schedule estimates, testing and reliability. But the Government Accountability Office also notes that some key reforms have been focused only on MDAPs, and defense officials face further challenges in implementing changes across the military portfolio and culture.
ARMY Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., was awarded a $563,788,721 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to fund the Navy’s second program year in support of MH-60S and MH-60R helicopters. The work will be performed in Stratford, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2016. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-12-C-0008).
The U.S. Navy is still pursuing approval to initiate a quick program to transform the Tomahawk cruise missile into an anti-ship weapon. Upon approval, the goal is to have a successful demonstration and fielded capability within 42 months, Rear Adm. Mathias Winter, commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, says in a recent blog.
After more than a year-long delay, the U.S. Air Force has begun training its F-35 instructor pilots at Eglin AFB, Fla. Gen. Edward Rice, who heads the Air Education and Training Center, gave the formal nod to begin pilot training Dec. 17 during a visit to the base, which is where the first F-35 schoolhouse has been established.
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have finally agreed on a 4% decrease in the target cost for the next production lot of stealthy F-35s after more than a year of antagonistic negotiations.
The destroyer-building shipyards were expecting the U.S. Navy to award the next contract block for nine or 10 DDG vessels by the end of this year, but legislative continuing resolutions (CRs) will likely push that decision out to the first quarter of next year, says Michael Petters, CEO for shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force has carried out its last missions with the Eurocopter SA330 Puma Mk1. The last Mk.1 flew its final sortie on Dec. 14. The Mk.1s are being replaced by 24 Puma Mk.2s that are progressively being upgraded by Eurocopter at their facilities at Brasov in Romania under the Puma Life-Extension Program, launched in September 2009. The first aircraft entered the program in October 2009 and the upgrades should extend the life of the long-serving medium helicopter until around 2025.
Of little surprise to anyone who follows federal procurement, the Pentagon is the hands-down leader when it comes to U.S. government sole-source contracting, accounting for nearly half of the bigger deals between fall 2008 and spring of this year.
LONDON — The U.K. Ministry of Defense will award a contract to provide for its Military Flight Training System (MFTS) in 2015. Industry partner Ascent — a Lockheed Martin/Babcock International joint venture — has issued a request for proposals for a new fleet of fixed-wing training aircraft that will be used for elementary, basic, multi-engine and fixed-wing rear crew training for all three of the U.K. armed services until 2030.
SAN DIEGO — After relying for years on contractors to provide maintenance and other services, the U.S. Navy is looking to redevelop the expertise to do much of that work with its own personnel in-house. This course change could significantly alter maintenance and other related contracts in years to come.
BEIJING — China is referring to a southern military command as a “theater of operations,” warlike language evidently designed to increase pressure on rival claimants to the South China Sea. The term, unfamiliar in peacetime, has appeared in a report by the state’s Xinhua news agency covering a visit to the southern city of Guangzhou by the new chairman of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping. Xi has inspected the command and called on the Chinese armed forces to increase their “real combat” awareness through military training, Xinhua says.
Lockheed Martin’s newest hit-to-kill air defense weapon achieved its first intercept this month in its production configuration, and full production is expected late next year. The Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor destroyed a tactical ballistic missile during a flight test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Dec. 6.
Allen S. Novick, a former Rolls-Royce/ Allison executive who helped transform the fortunes of the Indianapolis-based aeroengine maker with a revolutionary development concept, died on Dec. 9. He was 70. Novick led Allison's efforts to design, develop and produce the world's first family of turboshaft, turboprop and turbofan engines for military and civil use based on a single common core.
The relationship between government contractors and their customers is badly strained. This may not be surprising, given the tension between the need for security and the growing scarcity of economic resources. In working toward increased [weapons systems] affordability, government must challenge a legacy of myriad regulations, acquisition processes and increased oversight that have had unintended consequences. They hinder innovation and affordability.
Industry has long recognized the value of collaborating with government on applied research projects, especially in the pursuit of breakthrough technologies. Access to specialized skills and state-of-the-art facilities, not to mention risk sharing, are just a few of the direct benefits. Such cooperation has been instrumental in helping companies validate and commercialize advanced capabilities sooner than if they had been working alone.
Chris Chadwick President, Boeing Military Aircraft Age: 52 Education: B.S. in electrical engineering, Iowa State University; M.B.A., Maryville University. Career: Chadwick served as vice president of the F/A-18 program and program manager of the MV-22 before being promoted to his current job.
Israel's new advanced missile defense systems—such as Iron Dome and David's Sling—are so sophisticated that they may mark the end of an era as the last large, kinetic interceptors to be developed to block threats lobbed from neighboring countries, according to Israeli designers.
The U.K. coalition government sees the manufacturing sector—and the aerospace industry in particular—as a means of lifting the country out of the economic doldrums and onto a path to growth. But industry leaders are concerned that a lack of skills and perhaps more critically, interest in engineering from the up-and-coming generation of workers could starve the U.K. of aerospace growth at a time when industry is finally getting government support it needs.
In 2004, the Joint Strike Fighter's program manager, Lockheed Martin Vice President Tom Burbage, observed that if any one big defense program falters, the rippling effects impact all programs.
