LE BOURGET — The four Eurofighter nations have finally signed a deal to integrate MBDA’s Meteor air-to-air missile. The long-awaited signature, at the Paris air show on June 18, means that the Eurofighter consortium can now push ahead with the integration of the new missile onto the aircraft. The deal was signed with the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA) in the presence of senior ministers from Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K., the partner nations on the program.
Click here to view the pdf House Authorizers', Appropriators' Changes toFiscal 2014 Defense Spending Bill: Navy Research ($ in thousands; Base budget only; HAC numbers from chairman's mark) House Authorizers', Appropriators' Changes to Fiscal 2014 Defense Spending Bill: Navy Research ($ in thousands; Base budget only; HAC numbers from ch
The Pentagon’s acquisition czar said he is “reasonably confident” that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program’s classified cyber systems are “well protected” from Chinese and Russian hacking, but Frank Kendall is “not at all” confident that unclassified information is protected.
LE BOURGET — With Boeing fighting to hang onto its $4.7 billion program to develop secure satellite terminals for the U.S. Air Force, Raytheon is wrapping up work on the initial stage of an alternative terminal development, and is gearing up to conduct an operational test of the system in October.
AN RAF navigator has been awarded a top French medal for the second time in three years, for heroism under fire while protecting civilians from attack by Colonel Gaddaffi's forces in Libya.
LE BOURGET — The Lockheed Martin-led consortium developing the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is requesting approval from Italy, Germany and the United States—the program’s three partners—to expand the scope of the second and final flight test for the system. Originally, this trial was slated to pit Meads only against a theater ballistic missile (TBM) threat. Meads intercepted an air-breathing target during its first flight test late last year.
LE BOURGET — U.S. aerospace giant Boeing has signed on to market the Brazilian KC-390 aerial refueler and transport, made by Embraer, in selected areas, expanding on a technical agreement signed between the two in the spring of 2012. Boeing will lead sales, marketing, training and sustainment of the KC-390 in the U.S., United Kingdom and two unnamed Middle East countries.
LE BOURGET — Making its world debut at the Paris air show is the Iomax Archangel, an armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft based on a Thrush 710P agricultural aircraft. Iomax is a closely held and secretive company, founded by CEO Ron Howard, a former aviator with the U.S. Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Air Regiment, and it previously supplied electronic equipment to private and government clients, Howard said earlier this year in a magazine interview.
LE BOURGET — Alenia Aermacchi and ATK have completed a series of trials involving the roll-on/roll-off palletized gun system envisaged for the MC-27J Spartan gunship. The trials, at Eglin AFB, Fla., saw the aircraft undertake a series of ground and flight trials to prove the installation of the ATK-built GAU-23 30mm cannon in a side-firing configuration from the paratroop door in the rear cabin of the aircraft.
While the U.S. Navy trumpets the money-saving benefits of the multiyear block-buy deals the service made with the contractor teams that are building the two different versions of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a recent draft U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights potential savings of downselecting to only one LCS class.
NEW HORIZONS: U.S. National Guard leaders are about to brief state-level adjutants general on a strategic realignment in the guard’s unifying bureau near Washington that aims to raise its national-level staff’s strategic-planning capability, according to Army Gen. Frank Grass, National Guard Bureau chief and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The move comes as the dual-purpose Guard races to catch up to the active armed services in planning force structure, command and control, and capabilities regarding large-scale events, like natural disasters.
PARIS — The U.S. Marine Corps is aggressively trying to lower the high estimated cost-per-flying-hour (CPFH) of the F-35B and the aircraft’s 50-year sustainment price. And in advance of operational capability (IOC) set for December 2015, the service is also using the system’s advanced simulators to develop tactics for capabilities not yet fielded owing to the sophistication of the F-35 simulators already in the field.
LE BOURGET — The newly formed Aerojet Rocketdyne is crafting a plan with the Russian Kuznetsov Design Bureau to restart production of the NK-33 rocket engine to assuage concerns from NASA that enough propulsion systems will be available for missions planned to resupply the International Space Station.
LE BOURGET — The Piaggio-Selex HammerHead unmanned air system unveiled at the Paris air show June 18 is the Italian air force’s choice to meet its requirement for a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS, and the service plans to buy 10 of the systems, confirms Lt. Gen. Claudio Debertolis, Italy’s secretary general of defense and national armaments director. He said the HammerHead will be capable of carrying weapons, but the weapon payload will be limited to 500 kg (1,100 lb.) so that the system is not covered by the Missile Technology Control Regime.
Airbus Military has placed a third work package with South Africa's Denel Aerostructures (DAe) for the manufacture of structural components for the A400M military transport programme.
LE BOURGET — A slowdown in French R&D spending halted several new missile programs last year. The 2013 defense white paper pledges support for all of them once more, but the money still has to be secured.
AIR FORCE Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., has been awarded a $534,795,962 firm-fixed-price contract for AMRAAM Production Lot 27. The work will be performed at Tucson and is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2016. Fifty one percent of the production effort is Foreign Military Sales (AIM-120 C7s for Oman and Saudi Arabia). This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/EBA, Eglin AFB, Fla., is the contracting activity (FA8675-13-C-0003).
LE BOURGET — Boeing remains in protracted talks with Bombardier to provide a platform for its small Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) concept, which is being marketed outside the U.S. Boeing has repeatedly said since the Farnborough air show last July that it would select and announce its partner soon, a milestone that slipped repeatedly.
U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says that although costs ballooned out of control on the first two Littoral Combat Ships, the cost for follow-on vessels is coming down dramatically. Part of the cost problem on the initial ships, according to Navy officials and defense analysts, is that the service shifted building requirements to meet stiffer Navy standards during construction. LCS-1, the USS Freedom, was built by a contractor team led by Lockheed Martin. LCS-2, the USS Independence, was constructed by a team led by Austal USA and General Dynamics.
LE BOURGET — Executives from Boeing’s defense unit say they expect to have a productive air show this week in Paris despite a smaller turnout than usual from the Pentagon in terms of personnel and hardware dedicated toward international sales campaigns. By contrast, says Jeff Kohler, vice president of business development for Boeing Defense, Space and Security, more Pentagon support in those areas would be critical for the company’s plans for the upcoming Dubai and Singapore air shows.
LE BOURGET — Aircrews and air transport aircraft from eight nations have been training together in Spain, in a bid to boost interoperability across Europe. European Air Transport Training (EATT) is a European Defense Agency (EDA) project designed to harmonize and enhance airlift procedures and processes across the European member countries. The exercise, taking place now at Zaragoza AB, Spain, involves 350 personnel and 11 aircraft from the eight participating countries.
Pentagon procurement chief Frank Kendall expects to begin increasing production of the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-35 beginning in 2015, marking a shift forward in the $400 billion program. “Unless there is a major surprise, I think we will be able to ramp up production,” he told reporters June 13 after conducting a CEO conference of major suppliers for the single-engine fighter. Ideally, Kendall says he would like to increase production by half each year.
