FRENCH REAPER: The U.S. has offered to sell France 16 MQ-9 Reaper UAVs along with ground control stations, parts and logistics support worth an estimated $1.5 billion, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The agency notified Congress of the potential sale of the General Atomics-made UAVs June 27, saying the sale would “enhance the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance of the French military in support of national, NATO, United Nation-mandated and other coalition operations.”
The U.S. Navy says the Jan. 17 grounding of the ex-USS Guardian minesweeper in Philippine waters was a “tragic mishap” in a recent report that cites failures of ship leadership and crew leading up to the accident. “USS Guardian leadership and watch teams failed to adhere to prudent, safe, and sound navigation principles which would have alerted them to approaching dangers with sufficient time to take mitigating action,” Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, writes in the report.
There is little doubt what is behind the U.S. military’s rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. “The Asia-Pacific is important to us because of our treaties,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert, U.S. chief of naval operations, said last month during the International Maritime and Defense Exhibition (Imdex) Asia 2013. “It is important to our past and to our future.”
While the Pentagon has made strides in improving its past-performance assessments of contractors, the department still has a problem getting the work done on time, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. “DOD (Defense Department) faces challenges completing assessments on time,” GAO says, noting in its June 27 report that more than half the assessments continue to be late.
Across Eastern Europe, governments are trying to modernize their militaries in the face of the economic downturn afflicting their trading partners to the west. For years, countries like Romania and Bulgaria have remained heavily reliant on the Soviet era-built fighters and aircraft handed to them during the 1970s and '80s. And while most were keen to join NATO, the real focus has been on entering the European Union to benefit from the investment that membership brings. Air arm modernization has been put on the back burner, at least until now.
The wing spar for the U.S. Air Force's KC-46A tanker, traditionally the first piece for major assembly in a new aircraft, was loaded into a tooling jig at Boeing's widebody factory in Everett, Wash., on June 26, kicking off a manufacturing process that should see aircraft rollout in January and a first flight next June.
The U.S. military is close to finalizing a new set of rules of engagement (RoE) for cyberwarfare, and for responses to attacks it will likely reflect the homeland defense regime set up after 9/11, according to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We now have a playbook for cyber,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey told a Brookings Institution audience here June 27. “And we have forces allocated to the mission.”
As the U.S. Marine Corps starts to withdraw from Afghanistan, there is a greater emphasis on getting its equipment out of the country and back to the U.S. than there was during the withdrawal from Iraq. When leaving Iraq, Marines were shifting much of their equipment and gear to repurpose in Afghanistan. But now sequestration is making the service concentrate more on getting its goods back home for repairs and upgrades, says Gen. James Amos, Corps commandant.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force is working with BAE Systems to increase the service intervals on its Eurofighter Typhoons. BAE says the changes, which will see Typhoons serviced every 500 flight hours rather than the current 400 hr., will make the aircraft more available for frontline operations. It will also save around £100 million ($153 million) once all the aircraft have entered operation.
CAS GAP: The Senate Armed Services Committee wants the U.S. Air Force and Army to report whether the planned retirement of 1970s-era A-10s and the introduction of so-called fifth-generation F-22s and F-35s actually leaves a gap in close-air support (CAS) for troops.
With what is traditionally a first “piece” for a new airplane, Boeing’s workers loaded the wing spar for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-46A tanker into jigs at its widebody headquarters in Everett, Wash., on June 26, marking the start of major assembly work that should lead to a first flight a year from now.
For the U.S. Coast Guard, it is the beginning of the end — and not in a good way — as the service eyes a massive proposed cut to its long-struggling recapitalization efforts.
Canada’s armed forces have taken delivery of the first of 15 new Boeing CH-147F Chinook transport helicopters. The first aircraft was handed over on June 27 and will eventually go on to join a new unit, 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron, based at Petawawa, Ontario. The aircraft were purchased under the Canadian forces’ CDN$5 billion ($4.8 billion) Medium-to-Heavy Lift Helicopter Project, for a highly modified version of the CH-47F Chinook capable of operating in the challenging environment of Canada.
The U.S. Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper received some hefty cuts from the Senate 2014 defense policy bill, but the defense-wide program for the UAV got a $25 million boost to a $3 million total request. Overall, the mark from the Senate Armed Services committee, approved June 21 and reported this week, barely changed the request: less than 1% was cut from the procurement base budget; less than half a percent added to the research budget. Only 85 lines were changed, from the more than 1,600 lines in the Defense Department’s investment accounts.
F-35 TAILS: Magellan Aerospace has signed an agreement with BAE Systems for work on the F-35 Lightning II program. Magellan will produce more than 1,000 sets of horizontal tails for the conventional takeoff and landing variant. The work has a potential value of more than CDN$1.2 billion ($1.15 billion) over 20 years. The agreement was announced last week at the Paris air show. Magellan says it has achieved sales of more than CDN$100 million on the F-35 program to date.
While most of the recent focus in the Asia-Pacific has centered on China’s aircraft carrier development or the deployment of the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to Singapore, some of the real regional investment is in the more midrange amphibious ship fleets and their mobile ability to launch fixed-wing aircraft.
AgustaWestland has carried out the first flight of its initial ICH-47F Chinook destined for the Italian army. The aircraft made a 15-min. flight on June 24 and is the first “Foxtrot” model of the Chinook to be produced outside the U.S. The aircraft is the first of 16 Chinooks and four options ordered by the Italian defense ministry’s procurement agency, ARMAEREO, in 2009. First delivery will be in early 2014, when the aircraft will begin replacing the Italian army’s aging CH-47Cs, which have been in service since 1973.
The U.S. Marine Corps will probably issue a request for proposals (RFP) for its amphibious combat vehicle (ACV) in early 2014, says Gen. James Amos, Corps commandant. “That program is alive,” Amos said June 26 during a discussion roundtable with media. The Marine Corps has secured and saved a “moderate amount” of money for early program development, he says.
Though late to sign on to the network of nations purchasing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Israel will be the first partner nation to operate the fifth-generation fighter. “Israel will become the first non-U.S. operator of the F-35 in the world,” said Steve O’Bryan, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for F-35 program integration and business development in an interview at the Paris air show. The first F-35I combat squadron is expected to achieve initial operational capability in 2018.
