Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) is petitioning the leaders of the defense authorization bill’s conference to extract satellites and their related items from the U.S. Munitions List.
A U.S. defense official suggests North Korea’s first-ever satellite is tumbling in its polar orbit. U.S. Strategic Command, which tracks orbiting objects, referred questions to the Pentagon. A spokeswoman there said she would not comment on classified intelligence matters. One observer who tracked the spacecraft with night vision goggles said the satellite was “flickering,” and produced an intermittent trace on a time-exposure photograph, which could suggest tumbling.
IN THE CROSSHAIRS: A liberal think tank is targeting Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) for opposing sequestration cuts to the Defense Department with an advertising campaign (www.cutpentagonwaste.com) on cable stations in politically savvy New Hampshire.
SENATE TO CABINET: Numerous reports, starting with Bloomberg, said Dec. 13 that President Barack Obama will nominate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to become secretary of state and former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) for secretary of defense. Both men enjoy good reputations in the Senate, which must confirm their nominations, meaning their approval is expected. The libertarian Cato Institute in Washington said Hagel’s appointment would be welcome news for critics of the last decade’s explosive defense spending and activity around the world.
The Pentagon recently issued a new set of directives to better control the developmental use of autonomous weapons. “Autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems shall be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force,” the directive says.
LONDON — Cassidian is preparing the ground for potentially reduced levels of revenue from its air systems and service activities after 2015, company CEO Bernhard Gerwert has revealed.
Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) has released the names of the Republican chairmen of the House Armed Services subcommittees. Rep. Michael Turner (Ohio), who currently leads the subcommittee on strategic forces, will take over the powerful air and land forces subcommittee. Rep. Randy Forbes (Va.) moves from the Readiness panel to the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, a boon for his Navy-heavy district along the Virginia coast.
Planners and doctrine experts linked to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps are staking out defensive positions in case the U.S. government’s “Pacific pivot” strategy and the closely associated Air Force-and-Navy-led concept of Air Sea Battle (ASB) threatens the future importance of heavy ground forces.
Australia, dropping its commitment to operate only Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings in its future air combat fleet, will ask the U.S. for the price of a second batch of 24 Boeing Super Hornets. Because of repeated delays in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, Lockheed Martin now looks increasingly likely to get only about half of the Australian requirement for 100 fighters previously earmarked for the company in full.
As the White House and Congress continue deficit reduction negotiations, the nation’s largest corporations sent a message to President Barack Obama: it’s time to stop posturing and reach a deal. The Business Roundtable, made up of corporate CEOs who draw $7.3 trillion in annual revenues, wrote a Dec. 11 letter to Obama calling for a deal that averts the so-called fiscal cliff — the Washington buzzword to denote the expiration of tax cuts at the end of the year and the implementation of nearly $1 trillion in across-the-board budget cuts.
FIGHTER REBOOT: The Canadian government has officially released a series of documents outlining the parameters for moving forward with an F-18 replacement and shelving its earlier evaluation that led to the selection of the Lockheed Martin F-35. “Last April, we set out a Seven-Point Plan to hit the reset button on the process to replace the CF-18 aircraft,” the Honorable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, said in a press release.
As the U.S. takes initial steps toward laying down rules for cyber warfare, the head of EADS is voicing a note of caution. During a Dec. 11 speech at an Atlantic Council event assessing future global trends, CEO Tom Enders warned against the use of offensive cyber attacks, particularly at a time when the vulnerability of information technology is widespread. The vulnerability of an IT-based society and economy remains “largely ignored.”
Boeing now plans to announce its choice of a medium-sized business jet airframe for its new Maritime Surveillance Aircraft early next year, according to a company official. Boeing had hoped to announce the new partnership during the summer’s Farnborough air show and then pushed it back to year’s end. But final negotiations with the supplier are taking longer than planned, forcing the company to once again slip its unveiling.
The Dec. 11 launch of the U.S. Air Force’s third X-37B mission took place only after the service acknowledged “acceptable risk” associated with unknowns surrounding the yet-to-be-competed RL10B-2 upper-stage engine anomaly investigation, according to an Air Force Space Command spokeswoman.
As House and Senate negotiations on the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill near their end, the Secretary of Defense, lawmakers and interest groups are undertaking a last-ditch effort to win a compromise on key issues – including the retirement of U.S. Air Force aircraft. On Dec. 11, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made his final appeal to the leaders of the armed services committees to make changes to a long list of issues, aircraft retirements among them, or else he would recommend the president veto the bill.
NEW DELHI — India has canceled a tender to buy 180 howitzer artillery guns for the third time in 10 years. “The Request for Proposal (RFP) for the procurement of the Howitzers was canceled this year (2012) as both the firms participating in the tender were not able to meet the parameters,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony said in parliament on Dec. 12.
A new, satellite-based, 8-hr. weather forecast prototype covering remote areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is available to industry as a research tool on the website for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
LONDON — The French army has conducted a series of embarkation trials on a French navy ship to prepare for future joint operations. The trials, which began Dec. 3, saw the French Army Air Corps’ new NHIndustries NH90 Caiman Terre and Eurocopter EC665 Tiger helicopters embark on the French navy’s helo carrier and assault ship Dixmude for the first time. The trials took place off the coast of Hyeres in southern France.
The Council of Governors is petitioning the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees to press forward with the creation of a National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force.
LONDON — The consortium providing the U.K. with new air-to-air refueling tankers has taken delivery of its second aircraft and is in the process of applying for its Air Operators Certification (AOC).
The Pentagon is getting closer to starting new missile defense operations at a site in Romania in the middle of the decade with forthcoming work from Lockheed Martin on the launch system.
Investigators have found that a fuel leak was to blame for a malfunction in the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10 upper stage engine during the Oct. 8 launch of a Global Positioning System satellite aboard a Delta IV rocket. Despite diminished thrust in the upper stage, the third Boeing GPS IIF spacecraft made it to orbit in what Air Force Space Command chief Gen. William Shelton called a “diving save.”
