AgustaWestland-built AH-64 Apache attack helicopters have performed exceedingly well for the U.K. in Afghanistan and elsewhere, but they need upgrading to maintain that record. Options for the Attack Helicopter Capability Sustainment Program (AH CSP)—understood to be worth around £1 billion ($1.59 billion) for the winning bidder—are currently being assessed by the U.K. Defense Ministry, which is expected to reach a final decision in the spring.
Fiscal 2014—not 2013—will be the worst year for federal contractors, including defense companies, if the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration take effect in January 2013, says Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council. That is because sequestration will not cause a sharp drop-off in contracting opportunities until then. Federal contract spending will return to growth thereafter, but under lower top-line budgets outlined by the 2011 law known as the Budget Control Act.
The Russian air force has taken delivery of its first two Sukhoi Su-30SM fighters, domestic variants of the export best-seller Su-30MKI. Thirty aircraft were ordered in March 2012. Deliveries are scheduled to continue through 2015.
Limiting congressional terms brings in fresh blood, but that also means a change in direction. House Republicans are capping leadership terms at six years, which means that Rep. John Mica (Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will hand over his gavel next year. Mica may have rubbed colleagues the wrong way with his continued war against the Transportation Security Administration. But he was a strong advocate for the FAA's NextGen air traffic modernization system who came up through the aviation subcommittee.
Northrop Grumman's X-47B unmanned combat aircraft system demonstrator was hoisted aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Truman at NAS Norfolk, Va., on Nov. 26 ,to begin several weeks of deck handling trials, both in port and underway. The trials with Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) are a precursor to autonomous carrier takeoffs and landings planned for 2013.
Cost-effective readiness training for fifth-generation fighter aircraft is driving new simulation technologies that will change the way military pilots are trained within five years.
Pierre Chao, a longtime aerospace and defense (A&D) industry sage and managing partner at Renaissance Strategic Advisors, succinctly sums up what the outcome of the budget impasse in Washington between Republicans and Democrats should be. “Your taxes are going to go up, your benefits are going to go down, and spending is going to go down,” he said in a post-election address to Aviation Week's A&D Programs conference. “My six-year-old daughter knows this.”
NEW DELHI — India has warned that it will cancel a contract to buy helicopters from AgustaWestland and impose penalty measures if allegations of irregularities in the deal are proven, although it still has not launched a formal investigation into the matter. The deal to buy 12 AW101 helicopters, mainly to be used by the Indian president, prime minister and other top government functionaries, has been under a microscope after the arrest of a few individuals in Italy for allegedly paying bribes to Indian officials.
LONDON — Cassidian, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Qinetiq have been invited to bid on a contract to provide the U.K. Royal Navy with ISR services via an off-the-shelf, shipborne unmanned aerial system (UAS). According to the U.K. Ministry of Defense, the two-year deal would see the winning bidder providing 300 hr. of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) coverage each month per task line from Royal Navy vessels. The system would be contractor-owned and operated and be available for operations on a 24-hr.-a-day, seven-days-a-week basis.
The tri-national Medium Extended-Altitude Air Defense System (Meads) development program achieved its first target kill on Nov. 29. The Meads interceptor, a PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement weapon, was launched away from the MQM-107 target and turned 180-deg. for the engagement, demonstrating the long-promised “over-the-shoulder” capability offered by the system. The MQM-107 is an air-breathing target.
MIRROR, MIRROR: NASA plans to hold a workshop in February on possible uses for two 2.4-meter telescope mirrors transferred to the civil space agency in June by the National Reconnaissance Office. Although the optics have been proposed for a wide field infrared survey of the sky, other possibilities include uses for focused space-technology research, human exploration and operations, heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science. The agency will select concepts for using the mirrors that it believes advance its goals, and allow detailed presentations of them at the Feb.
As the year comes to a close, the U.S. State Department continues to push forward with its overhaul of the U.S. Munitions List and other reforms to facilitate the sale of weapons abroad. This week, the department announced revisions to the munitions list for military electronics and refined the rules for components and parts.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is making yet another run at trying to force the U.S. to sell 66 F-16 C/D multi-role fighter aircraft to Taiwan. Cornyn, along with Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), have teamed up for a third attempt to make the sale of the Lockheed Martin fighters and hope to include it in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill being considered this week on the Senate floor.
Saudi Arabia has signed a 'direct commercial sale' contract with Raytheon for a Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) . The system will be delivered by Raytheon's Network Centric Systems business.
MISDEF MARKET: Even before the latest fighting in Gaza between Israeli and Hamas forces, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin were poised to receive major new orders for missile defense systems from Middle Eastern countries, Wall Street analysts note. But the recent fighting, and the performance of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system developed with U.S. funds and technology, may spur growth. This month, the Pentagon announced potential foreign military sales to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) worth up to $17 billion combined.
NEW DELHI — India on Nov. 28 successfully carried out the first flight of its Jaguar aircraft with upgraded avionics, known as the Darin III. State-run defense manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) flew the upgraded version for re-induction into the Indian air force (IAF) after final certification and clearance. “The upgrade will enable the Darin III Jaguar to fly in all weather with air-to-air, air-to-ground and air-to-sea capabilities, using [the] latest avionics and multi-mode radar,” says HAL chairman R.K. Tyagi.
After returning from the presidential campaign trail, former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has received a waiver to continue as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Term limits have opened chairmanships on other key aerospace and defense committees, and the Republican Steering Committee is recommending a number of changes. Those were due to be voted on by House Republicans Nov. 28.
ZHUHAI, China — The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has reiterated its intention to replace its Dassault Mirage fighters with JF-17s, the single-engine fighter that Pakistan manufactures and which it jointly developed with China. Khalid Mahmood, PAF Air Commodore and JF-17 deputy chief project director, tells Aviation Week that Pakistan plans to have 150 JF-17s. He says the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra is producing 18 JF-17s per year and the production rate can move to 25 annually, if there is a requirement from a foreign customer.
The Senate has amended the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill to allow the Pentagon to continue investing in alternative fuels by a 62-37 vote. On Nov. 27, the fate of the defense bill, which has passed annually for more than 50 years, was still in question as senators continued to negotiate over which amendments would be subject to debate.
LONDON — Alenia and ATK are offering a precision-guided missile capability for their MC-27J intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) gunship conversion of the C-27J Spartan transport aircraft. Lightweight air-to-ground weapons in the class of the Raytheon AGM-175 Griffin or the MBDA GBU-44 Viper Strike will boost the armament of the multirole cargo aircraft concept, which was first unveiled at this year’s Farnborough air show and is now being actively marketed as a joint program by the two companies.
