ABOARD THE USS FREEDOM — The skipper is smiling, cautiously. The first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1), the USS Freedom, is pushing off from a U.S. Navy pier in San Diego a few minutes before schedule, and Cmdr. Tim Wilke, the ship’s commanding officer, knows that the early departure is a big deal. “We finished everything on time,” he says. “We got under way on time. Those are the highlights.”
CYBER STEP: The divide causing cybersecurity legislation to stall in the Senate hinges on whether or not the government can direct private companies to share information about attacks. But the Senate’s version of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill will take a limited step in that direction. The bill includes a provision that will require defense contractors to report breaches of their network and the loss of information on sensitive programs.
The Russian government recently announced two programs to further develop its transportation system and aircraft industry, but the support of local manufacturers will become less straightforward following the country's inclusion into the World Trade Organization this summer. The new transport development program, announced Nov. 23, covers all means of transportation and strives to increase the mobility of the population to 10,000 km (6,200 mi.) per person by 2020 from today's 7,000 km per person, according to the transport minister, Maxim Sokolov.
President Barack Obama, expected to soon begin announcing new members of his Cabinet, will be selecting the leader of the world's largest bureaucracy and filling one of the toughest jobs in the U.S. At least four names are being floated as replacements for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and each is being greeted by defense industry officials with degrees of dismay.
As Hurricane Sandy wound its way north along the Atlantic Coast in late October, the storm appeared to be on a track to head harmlessly out to sea. But data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) polar orbiting weather satellites indicated that the deadly storm would take a sharp left turn and hit some of the most densely populated regions of the U.S., providing days of warning.
As North Korea prepares to launch a satellite, over the objections of the U.S. and the United Nations, a test of the missile-defense system designed to protect the U.S. against an attack from the Korean peninsula was delayed again. The Defense Department is moving assets into the Pacific region to monitor North Korea's launch, which Pyongyang says is slated to take place Dec. 10-22. Assets include Navy destroyers as well as intelligence-collecting aircraft outfitted to detect a launch and characterize the missile's capability once lofted.
After a crash-sprinkled early history of trial and error, the developer of a modern reinterpretation of the autogyro is reporting progress in flight testing. Carter Aviation Technologies says it has achieved lift-to-drag ratios greater than 12—flight efficiencies 2.5 times that of a helicopter—in tests of its four-seat Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) prototype.
The Pentagon’s warnings to North Korea not to replicate an April satellite launch this month come as U.S. defense officials are delaying the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) next planned flight test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, which has not achieved a successful intercept since 2008.
LONDON — The introduction into service of the MDBA Meteor air-to-air missile has moved another step closer with the first firing of the weapon from a Eurofighter Typhoon. A single Meteor was launched from the BAE Systems-operated Instrumented Production Aircraft (IPA) 6 during a sortie from the company’s facility at Warton in Lancashire on Dec. 4. The weapon was ejected from one of the aircraft’s rear semi-conformal missile stations and follows a series of trials involving unpowered missiles which demonstrated safe separation of the weapon.
The U.S. Air Force is scrapping a troubled $1 billion, seven-year effort to overhaul and modernize its management of logistics — and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders want to know who to hold accountable.
With less than a month to go before the budget penalty known as sequestration could kick in, the Obama administration has dropped another edict on the table: everyone start planning now. Administration officials maintain that the goal is unchanged: Sequestration should be avoided. It’s the directive to start detailed planning that is the big change.
Rolls-Royce (R-R) has passed details of an internal review to the U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) relating to concerns about corruption in the Far East. In a statement on Dec. 6, the engine maker said the move followed requests for information from the SFO about what it calls “allegations of malpractice in Indonesia and China," adding that it has “identified matters of concern in these and in other overseas markets.”
House Democrats are shuffling leadership positions on a number of committees that affect aerospace and defense. Rep. Nita Lowey (N.Y.) replaces outgoing Rep. Norm Dicks (Wash.) as the minority leader of the House Appropriations Committee. Dicks led the party on both the full committee and the defense subcommittee. The subcommittee role has not been formally decided yet, but Rep. Peter Visclosky (Ind.) is expected to fill that role.
After several years of the military supporting the civilian aerospace industry, the reverse is now the case — a trend likely to continue into 2013, according to the Aerospace Industries Association’s (AIA) annual year-end review and forecast.
NEW DELHI — India says it has not canceled its plans to buy 197 reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters, but “the procurement case is under examination,” according to Defense Minister A.K. Antony. The proposed deal, worth more than $2 billion, has been mired in controversy following allegations that an Indian official had solicited a bribe from bidder AgustaWestland. Antony has said that if any evidence is found of tender deviations or any other misconduct, the deal will be scrapped.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has won the first two U.S. Air Force contracts aimed at fostering competition in the U.S. launch market over a new design proposed by Orbital Sciences. SpaceX will use its Falcon 9 v1.1 to boost NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) in November 2014 and the Falcon 9 Heavy for launch of a Space Test Program satellite in September 2015, says Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, program executive officer for Air Force space programs.
FALLING SHORT: The U.S. government is slipping in meeting its goals for awarding professional services and IT contracts to small, disadvantaged, minority and women-owned businesses, except in one area, according to contracting consultants at Deltek. Veteran-owned businesses continue to grab greater percentages of so-called set-aside awards and other contracts since 2008, the consultants say.
