Airbus Military's A400M airlifter was finally able to provide a flying display in front of the crowd at Le Bourget this year. Issues with the aircraft's TP400 turboprop engines limited the planned aerobatic display in 2011 to a mere flyby before it was relegated to the static park. The second aircraft at the show, which is destined for the French air force, appeared in the static display area.
In late April, the FAA trumped the National Transportation Safety Board by approving a redesign and return-to-flight plan for the Boeing 787's troubled lithium-ion batteries. It came the same week NTSB held an investigative hearing in which participants made it clear that the root cause for the smoking batteries had not been found. The usually loquacious NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman played it cool at the time, but public comments she provided in the FAA's airworthiness directive (AD) docket for the 787 fix earlier this month reveal she might yet have the last word.
Governments have not always been good at dealing with the defense industry. Over history and probably in the future too, there have been and are likely to be a litany of delayed or canceled programs caused by overspecification, cost overruns or poor quality. Such affairs are typically part and parcel of defense life, but as fiscal belts tighten, these events are becoming increasingly politically untenable.
The U.S. military's so-called Pacific pivot has the Navy taking a big gamble on a little vessel—the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The Navy is betting the frigate-sized ship will provide just the right kind of presence without being overpowering as the U.S. struggles to boost its presence in the region without flexing too much muscle and infringing on the sovereignty of the Asian partners it wants to woo.
A “discussion draft” of a two-year NASA reauthorization bill is running into bipartisan opposition in its originating House space subcommittee, illustrating how lawmakers' divergent opinions about NASA spending are inhibiting progress. Democrats are complaining about cuts in Earth Science funding. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), the panel's vice chairman, promises to vote against the bill unless more money is provided for the Space Launch System program in his district.
Rolls-Royce may lack the weight of General Electric or Pratt & Whitney in the U.S. military market, with a mixed bag of programs, but its diverse installed base could prove beneficial as defense spending comes down. Accounting for 20% of overall Rolls-Royce revenues, the defense business is split roughly 50:50 between production and services. The majority of revenues come from mature engine programs. Only about 5% stems from development work, so the company's main focus is on upgrading existing engines.
President Barack Obama’s call to cut the U.S. operational, strategic nuclear warhead arsenal by up to a third below the New Start treaty’s 1,550 cap, along with the announcement that he is seeking related negotiations with Russia, is drawing criticism from conservatives and even skepticism from some peace advocates.
U.S. federal contractors — particularly primes for the Pentagon and intelligence community — could see hundreds of millions of dollars less in annual profits if lawmakers and the White House lower the cap on how much the government reimburses contractor salaries.
NEW DELHI — Eyeing a potential $2 billion domestic market, India’s state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), which recently carved out a separate unmanned air systems (UAS) division as part of a comprehensive diversification drive, wants to ready platforms quickly to meet a raft of current and expected requirements from the armed forces, police and paramilitary.
While the current developing concept of Air-Sea Battle (ASB) has come to mean many things to many people, one key underlying principle is the need to communicate both before and during operations, according to a recent report by the Pentagon ASB Office. “In the ASB Concept, networked actions are tightly coordinated in real time by mission-organized forces to conduct integrated operations across all domains without being locked into service-specific procedures, tactics, or weapons systems,” the office says.
LE BOURGET — AgustaWestland will add a diesel engine to its Project Zero technology incubator program to boost the endurance of the electric vertical-lift aircraft. The off-the-shelf diesel engine purchased from a car manufacturer is now being modified to reduce weight and will be ready for installation into the demonstrator during the coming year.
ABOARD THE USS ENTERPRISE — The “Queen of the Seas” looked nearly naked without her crown — the upper mast of antennae and other combat accessories normally towering above her flight deck — but her carrier number “65” scrawled out in lights near her shorn top shone as brightly as ever against the dawn. Aircraft carriers are always a beehive of activity — from their gestation days at the Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding yard to the day, like today, when CVN-65 USS Enterprise gets ready to be “deactivated,” or essentially dismantled.
LE BOURGET — The U.K. Royal Navy will operate the Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle UAV from its warships. The service’s contract deal, worth £30 million ($46 million), was announced on June 20 and is the first purchase of a UAV for operation from British naval ships. ScanEagle has been operated from U.K. navy vessels in the past during capability trials.
LE BOURGET — Alenia Aeronautica is preparing for the second phase of flight testing—including the integration of precision-guided munitions—on its palletized MC-27J gunship kit. The concept is driven, in part, by U.S. Air Force interest, though the Italian Air Force also has interest in a C-27J gunship version.
LE BOURGET — Raytheon is looking at ways to respond to an urgent U.S. Navy call for a new version of the AIM-9X Sidewinder with greatly increased range, Vice President for Air Warfare Systems Harry Schulte said at the Paris air show June 19. Although the Block II version of the missile is still in operational testing, the Navy wants to get the long-range Block III into developmental testing by 2018, according to budget documents. The Block III “overlaps the range capability” of the AIM-120 Amraam, Schulte says.
LE BOURGET — Diversification into business aviation and defense will let Embraer grow without forcing the company into direct competition with Airbus and Boeing, says President and CEO Frederico Fleury Curado. “The fact that defense can grow to be a solid business...and business aviation to be another important pillar is embedded in our decision not to try to engage in larger commercial aircraft,” he tells Aviation Week in an interview after the company launched its next-generation E-Jet E2.
LE BOURGET — The Italian ministry of defense and Alenia Aermacchi have agreed to jointly define the operational requirements for a jet-powered basic trainer aimed at pilfering market share from turboprop models such as the Beechcraft T-6, Pilatus PC-21 and Embraer’s A-29 Super Tucano. The aircraft, called the M-345 High Efficiency Trainer, is the latest attempt by Alenia to find a market for its legacy, unsold M-211 single-engine jet trainer, which was derived from the decades-old SIAI-Marchetti S.211.
REAPER REALIGNMENT: The Pentagon may be scaling back its request for MQ-9 Reapers, but Congress is coming to the aid of the General Atomics UAV, citing industrial base concerns. In a report on a draft version of the House’s fiscal 2014 defense spending bill, appropriators contend that the Air Force is reducing the Reaper buy too quickly — from 48 to 24 in fiscal 2013 — and halving it again to 12 in 2014. If the language is adopted by the full Congress, it would direct the U.S. Air Force to buy eight additional Reapers next year.
