GRIPEN PARTNERSHIP: Collaboration between Sweden and Switzerland on the new JAS 39E/F version of the Saab Gripen fighter is expected to firm up in August with the signature of a framework agreement between Swiss defense procurement agency Armasuisse and Sweden’s defense export organization. That follows the signature of a ministerial-level letter of intent in Switzerland on June 29. On the same day, Saab hosted a business-to-business meeting to start the process of placing offset work in Switzerland, in advance of a formal development contract that is expected in 2014.
FARNBOROUGH — Alenia Aermacchi and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) are planning to begin testing the first MC-27J multimission C-27J airlifter — outfitted with a 30mm cannon for the gunship role — this fall. The test campaign comes as the manufacturer works to carve out more market share for the tactical airlifter in the wake of a U.S. Air Force decision earlier this year to walk away from it and shelve brand new hardware owing to budget pressure.
FARNBOROUGH — Europrop International (EPI) is confident that an issue with the TP400 engines that prevented the Airbus A400M from flying at the Farnborough air show will be solved promptly, and will not threaten the military airlifter’s scheduled 2013 entry-into-service. In the days prior to the show, a diagnostic system detected metallic chips in one of the engines on MSN006, the first production-standard A400M appearing at Farnborough. The debris indicated deterioration on one of the unit’s roller bearings, says Europrop president Simon Henley.
DARPA DIRECTOR: Pentagon acquisition and technology chief Frank Kendall has appointed Arati Prabhakar as the 20th director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, starting July 30. Prabhakar served a seven-year tour through Darpa starting in 1986, first as a program manager and then director of the Microelectronics Technology Office. In 1993 she was President Bill Clinton’s director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, before heading to Silicon Valley in 1997 to work for industry. Prabhakar received an M.S.E.E. and a Ph.D.
As the U.S. moves to strengthen defenses of digital networks and assets, agreeing on standards for cybersecurity will prove more difficult than reaching a consensus on privacy and information sharing, the head of the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency (NSA) believes.
FARNBOROUGH — Piaggio is teaming with Saab to develop a new maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) based on a highly modified version of its P.180 Avanti II business aircraft. At the Farnborough air show on July 10, Piaggio Aero announced that it signed a contract with Abu Dhabi Autonomous System Investments, a subsidiary of Tawazun, covering the development of the aircraft and the construction of two prototypes. The first is to fly in 2014.
As the U.S. Navy continues to search for the root causes of the rare engine issues that led to the April crash of an F/A-18D in Virginia Beach, Va., the service also is looking at changes in training and procedures the brass says likely could avert such future incidents.
FARNBOROUGH — Although Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) intends to boost its civil business to 40% of the whole within the next two years, military aviation continues to figure strongly in the strategy being followed by President Mikhail Pogosyan. Speaking at the Farnborough air show this week, Pogosyan noted that of 485 aircraft to be built by UAC member companies in 2012-14, some 60% will be combat aircraft, trainers or military transports.
FARNBOROUGH — After a long flirtation with the concept of a partnership to offer a foreign fast-jet trainer to the U.S. Air Force as a T-38C replacement, Boeing will forgo an off-the-shelf bid in favor of a new-build design or opt not to bid at all.
FARNBOROUGH — Lockheed Martin has flown a small unmanned aircraft for 48 hr. using laser power beaming as the company works to grow its presence in the UAV market. The test took place in a wind tunnel and involved Lockheed’s hand-launched, battery-powered Stalker UAV and LaserMotive’s power beaming system. Stalker has an endurance of 2 hr. on battery power alone. In 2011, Lockheed flew an “extreme endurance” version able to stay aloft for more than 8 hr. on combined propane fuel-cell and lithium-polymer battery power.
With there no longer being an urgent need to quickly buy and build vastly up-armored vehicles to prowl the terrain in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon is returning to a more customary approach to developing and procuring its ground equipment. A case in point is the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), a program about to enter its engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase.
FARNBOROUGH — Lockheed Martin is touting an export-friendly manned-unmanned teaming capability at the Farnborough air show, hoping to interest the U.K. as it ponders a midlife update for its AgustaWestland/Boeing WAH-64D Apache AH.1s. The VUIT system is based on equipment that was fitted to 48 U.S. Army AH-64Ds and deployed to Iraq to enable the Apaches to receive video from unmanned aircraft and send video to the ground.
Hawker Beechcraft Defense Company (HBDC) is putting its AT-6 light attack/armed reconnaissance aircraft into low rate initial production (LRIP) in Wichita.
NEW DELHI — Boeing has moved a step closer to delivering the first P-8I aircraft to the Indian navy, with the flight-test program of the long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft now under way. “The Boeing-led team is on track to deliver the first aircraft to the Indian navy in May 2013,” say company officials.
SINGAPORE — Now that the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has secured the tactical and strategic airlift that it wanted, the service airlift group’s next procurement is for VIP air transportation.
AIR FORCE Teradyne Inc., North Reading, Mass., is being awarded a $16,848,088 firm-fixed-price contract to procurement components for the organic assembly of 25 Versatile Depot Automatic Test Systems. The location of the performance is North Reading, Mass. The work is to be completed by Sept. 30, 2013. WR-ALC/PKOA, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is the contracting activity (FA8571-12-F-0002). NAVY
FARNBOROUGH — Eurocopter and Heli-One are teaming to bolster a bid for Norway’s next-generation fleet of search-and-rescue (SAR) helicopters. Norway has said it needs new SAR helicopters, and Eurocopter is putting forward its EC225, optimized for these missions in Nordic environments and capable of flying in mountainous and coastal regions.
FARNBOROUGH — Unmanned systems are making a big showing at the Farnborough air show here, but a highly anticipated announcement on advancing Franco-U.K. cooperation on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is looking unlikely. During a Franco-British summit held in February, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to forge ahead with joint development of a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) drone by 2020.
FARNBOROUGH — Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon’s Missile Systems business, is less than happy about the U.K.’s recent approach to weapons planning, including the awards made so far under the Team Complex Weapons (TCW) initiative. “We have been disappointed in the pace of opportunities presented to us,” Lawrence says. “The U.K. said that it was open to competition, but so far we have not seen any competition coming forward.”
The U.S. Navy recently awarded a $212.7 million fixed-priced, incentive-fee contract for the detail design and construction of a Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) test and training craft to New Orleans-based Textron. The cumulative value of the hovercraft contract could reach as high as $570.5 million, if the Navy exercises options for up to eight additional craft.
A five-year contract for H-60 helicopters signed by Sikorsky and the U.S. Army gives a Pentagon facing budget uncertainty some flexibility to adjust its procurement numbers over the coming years. The $8.5 billion baseline contract covers 653 Black Hawk and Seahawk helicopters for delivery by December 2017, and includes 106 aircraft for foreign military sales (FMS) customers in addition to 354 UH/HH-60Ms for the Army and 193 MH-60R/Ss for the Navy.
