JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s defense minister is adamant that the country will be getting anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters. Purnomo Yusgiantoro says the country’s defense budget, passed by parliament, includes money allocated for the purchase of ASW naval helicopters. The aircraft are to be stationed on the navy’s Sigma-class corvettes. The navy has four corvettes, and a fifth was recently ordered.
CALL TO ARMS: The leaders of top military service associations are appealing to congressional leadership to prevent sequestration. In a letter being sent Nov. 9 to House and Senate leaders, the retired military officials say the across-the-board cuts would harm the nation’s security and its economy. “The defense-industrial base is a strategic national asset; assuring its survival requires careful planning and foresight – not shortsighted draconian cuts,” write retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, president of the Association of the U.S. Army; retired Lt. Gen.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia is building a squadron of locally developed UAVs for air surveillance in border areas. Each UAV will reportedly be four meters long, with a wingspan of around six meters. An aircraft was unveiled in October at Halim air base in Jakarta. Indonesia’s Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology and the ministry of defense’s research and development division developed the UAV.
The coming decade should bring strong growth to the global satellite production and launch industry, according to the Paris-based consulting company Euroconsult, which forecasts $198 billion in revenues for the 2012-2021 period, a 36% increase over the previous 10 years. Demand from established government space programs, as well as a commercial sector faced with replacing aging telecommunications spacecraft, will drive the anticipated demand despite global economic concerns.
Despite lingering disagreement over how to address the nation’s deficit, lawmakers from both parties in Congress are talking openly about a plan to avert sequestration. “I believe that there is a very decent chance that we can come up with a plan to replace the sequester for six months, while we negotiate a longer-term solution,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told reporters after speaking to the World Affairs Council of America on Nov. 8, stressing that replacement is different from postponement.
EADS witnessed massive cash outflow in the first nine months of the year and hopes it will be break even on free cash flow for the full year, but is dependent, in part, on achieving targeted Airbus A380 delivery numbers. The company reported a €3.2 billion ($4 billion) negative free cash flow in its third-quarter results briefing for the year to date, with net cash falling from €11.3 billion to €8 billion. This is in sharp contrast to previous cash flow projections.
Boeing Defense, Space and Security is restructuring its business units once again, undoing some of the changes it enacted only two years ago in an effort to reap savings that it can pass on to more frugal defense customers worldwide.
The U.S. Navy needs to make more improvements in its Aegis-equipped fleet, according to a recent report obtained by the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) that was prepared by a Navy Operational Advisory Group (OAG). Destroyers and cruisers equipped with Aegis radars and defense shields are becoming more vital components for the ballistic missile defense (BMD) missions envisioned by the Navy to protect the nation and its allies.
PHOENIX — A who’s-who panel of Washington insiders with the aerospace and defense sector sees a better-than-decent chance that lawmakers and the White House go through a series of mini-compromises for years over everything from defense spending to tax issues and the federal debt ceiling, now that the status quo power arrangement there has been re-cemented.
Democrats retained control of the U.S. Senate majority in a number of nail-bitingly close elections in states key to the defense industrial base. And the election sets up a potential shift at the top of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where Sen. John McCain, the top Republican, faces a party term limit. At least five seats on the committee, four of them Democratic, are now vacant due to retirements or losses.
NEW DELHI — India will expedite the procurement of the Swiss Pilatus PC-7 Mk. 2 trainer and the Indian air force (IAF) will begin training courses on the new turboprop aircraft starting in July 2013, the country’s defense minister says. The contract for 75 trainers, signed in May, is worth more than 500 million Swiss francs ($520 million). Deliveries will begin in February 2013 and last until August 2015.
Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), the leader of the House spending panel on defense, has hung on to his seat, leaving him in position to lead an effort to pass a full-year fiscal 2013 defense spending bill, potentially by late March. Young’s ongoing tenure adds some stability to the panel, where mass turnover otherwise will take place on the Democratic side. In addition to the retirement of Rep. Norm Dicks (Wash.), the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) are also departing.
MUSICAL CHAIRS: Sen. Jim Inhofe (Okla.) is seeking to replace Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) as the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Because of the term limits for Senate Republican Ranking Memberships, I am looking forward to stepping in as Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,” Inhofe said in an emailed statement to Aviation Week, acknowledging that Republican committee members will have to vote for him. “I am deeply concerned about planned defense cuts and pending defense cuts through sequestration.
On the day after the election, President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats saw their victories as confirmation of the fact that the U.S. wants higher taxes on its richest citizens. And Republicans see the vote as a mandate for guarding against tax hikes and doubling down on spending reductions.
TEL AVIV — Tel Aviv’s defenses against missiles and artillery are quickly getting tougher. The Israeli Air Force is in the midst of deploying yet another upgrade to its Iron Dome system that should be completed by year’s end, say officials associated with the program.
Adm. John Richardson relieved Adm. Kirkland Donald as director of Naval Reactors earlier this month to take charge of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, during a particularly vital moment for the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. The nation’s Virginia-class SSN attack submarines are in block production as the country starts to design and plan for the replacement fleet for its SSBN ballistic missile submarine force. At the same time, the Navy is in the middle of honing and building its next-generation, Ford-class, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Russia’s defense industry plans to establish a service center in Indonesia to support Sukhoi fighters and Russian helicopters. “We know it is on the Indonesian agenda and we are now waiting for an invitation to have discussions on this,” Victor Komardin, deputy director general of Russian arms export agency Rosoboronexport, told Aviation Week Nov. 7 on the sidelines of the IndoDefense exhibition in Jakarta. “I think we will start talking about this next year,” he says.
Paramount Group - one of Africa's leading defence and aerospace companies - is helping to educate and inspire Africa's next generation of engineers to consider a career in the defence and aerospace industry.
South African defence giant Denel said today that it intends to expand its proven expertise in systems engineering and command-and-control across the defence environment.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia has enshrined in law its offset policy for the purchase of foreign defense equipment, setting the level of offset investment at 35%, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro tells Aviation Week.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is researching the possibility of using Rotating Detonation Engines (RDEs) to reduce fuel consumption in gas-turbine engines, says Kazhikathra Kailasanath, who heads NRL’s Laboratory for Computational Physics and Fluid Dynamics. There are now about 430 gas turbine engines on 129 U.S. Navy ships. These engines burn about $2 billion worth of fuel each year. By retrofitting these engines with rotating detonation technology, researchers estimate that the Navy could save about $300 million to $400 million annually.
