ABOARD THE USS FREEDOM — The Mantis helicopter mover glides the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter across the flight deck of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom seemingly with all the ease of a couch being moved across a living room floor.
The Egyptian Air Force will double its C295 transport fleet following an order with Airbus Military today for six additional aircraft bringing the fleet to a total of 12 aircraft.
Following agreement between the Governments of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, under the Saudi British Defence Cooperation Programme, Rolls-Royce has signed a contract to provide support for engines powering the Royal Saudi Air Force fleet of Tornado combat aircraft.
The latest report on the F-35 program by Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E), spotlights growing problems with late software deliveries for the stealthy fighter.
ARMY Thales Raytheon Systems, Fullerton, Calif., was awarded a $14,102,920 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the contractor support services for the Sentinel radar. The work will be performed in Fullerton, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-13-C-0091).
AIR FORCE Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., (F04701-95-C-0017) is being awarded a $12,972,373 contract modification for Space Based Infrared System high components. The location of the performance is Sunnyvale. The work is expected to be completed by March 2013. The Air Force Space and Missile Center, Los Angeles AFB, Calif., is the contracting activity.
FORT WORTH — Passive multimode radar and high-resolution laser radar are among the U.S. Air Force’s research priorities as it looks for ways to address the anti-access and area-denial challenges in the Pacific theater. “As we shift from permissive to contested environments … we are spending around $100 million a year on lidar and radar for anti-access/area-denial environments,” says Maj. Gen. William McCasland, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
The biggest enemy the U.S. Navy faces in maintaining its ships is the volatility of funding due to delayed budgets and continuing resolutions (CRs) that rob the service of transferring authority to shift resources to meet readiness needs. “Maintenance has to be done or it gets more costly,” says Vice Adm. William Burke, deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems. But just as important, Burke said Jan. 8 during a Navy League breakfast briefing, is that the maintenance is well planned and executed to that plan.
Given the strong possibility of an extended continuing resolution (CR) and the still-looming threat of sequestration on the horizon, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is demanding cost-saving measures across the service and Marine Corps ranks. “Given the great uncertainty we face, we must enact prudent, but stringent belt-tightening measures now that will permit us to operate the Navy and Marine Corps through the rest of this fiscal year if the CR is extended,” Mabus says in recently released guidance message.
CARRIER COMPLETION: The next U.S. aircraft carrier, the CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford, is now about 90% complete. The Newport News Shipbuilding unit of Huntington Ingalls Industries recently added three units to the ship, including two sponsons to provide the space needed for flight deck operations. One of the sponsons was 140 ft. long and weighed 391 metric tons, making it one of the largest ever erected. In addition, shipbuilders installed 3 million ft. of cable of the estimated total 10 million ft. to be installed. The Ford has been under construction since November 2009.
C295 ORDER: Colombia has ordered an extra C295 transport aircraft from Airbus Military. With the order, made in November and announced on Jan. 14, the Colombian air force will have a fleet of six C295s as well six of the smaller C212. This latest order brings the number of Airbus Military C295s and CN235s sold in 2012 to 32 and increases total C295 orders to 115, with 93 currently in operation in 15 countries.
ARMY Gideon Services Inc., Huntsville, Ala., was awarded a $20,892,720 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the procurement of sets of commercial parts for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Capability Set 13 program. The work location will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 3, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with three bids received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-13-D-0044).
NEW DELHI — India plans to buy medium-range, anti-ship missiles for its naval ships, and is polling industry on its options. The missiles “will be utilized for engaging identified surface targets by the Indian navy,” a defense ministry official says. The ministry of defense has issued a request for information for the missiles, which must have a range of at least 120 km (75 mi.). The official declined to specify the number of missiles the Indian navy proposes to buy.
ST Aerospace has announced that it has secured a contract to provide the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) with a full scale maintenance and modernisation solution for three of its C130 Hercules aircraft. ST Aerospace will undertake both modernisation and maintenance work at its facility in Paya Lebar, Singapore.
Hawker Beechcraft is furloughing workers on its T-6/AT-6 production line as it works through the most recent Joint Primary Aircraft Training Systems (JPATS) contract. The company says it is currently on the contract for Lot 18 aircraft, but is in negotiations for Lots 19 and 20.
The second round of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom’s post shakedown availability (PSA-2) overhaul went a lot more smoothly than the first overhaul, PSA-1, in part because the U.S. Navy took a “phased” approach in scheduling maintenance tasks, according to the ship’s commanding officer. “We took a systems engineering approach,” says Cmdr. Tim Wilke. “We looked at second- and third-order effects of doing the jobs, taking a more holistic approach that I don’t know was taken in the first PSA.”
Though the Pentagon managed to dodge a bullet at the turn of the year, the specter of sequestration funding cuts still looms if a new deal is not reached in March, and U.S. Air Force leadership warns that readiness accounts are sure to be hit.
As the Pentagon and Obama administration look for more ways to whittle away at costs and budget requirements, the U.S. Navy is touting the need for continued surface warfare improvements. “Despite the current tenuous fiscal environment and the ever-changing political landscape of the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, our ships are relevant, credible sources of combat power throughout the world,” says Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden, Navy surface warfare director, in a recent blog.
