Tests of the high pressure-ratio core for a future variable-cycle fighter engine are to begin this week at General Electric’s Evendale, Ohio, facility under the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (Advent) program. Rolls-Royce, meanwhile, delivered its Advent core to the test rig at Indianapolis last week in preparation for testing over the next several months. GE and Rolls will run full engine demonstrators next year under the Advent program.
Honeywell company UOP has received a U.S. Defense Department (DOD) grant to revamp a refinery on the U.S. West Coast to supply up to 22 million gal. a year of bio-derived diesel and jet fuel. The agreement is part of a Pentagon-led effort to scale up production and drive down the costs of advanced biofuels as drop-in replacements for conventional kerosene fuels.
AIR FORCE United Launch Services, Littleton, Colo. (FA8811-13-C-0001), is being awarded a $1,167,800,000 cost plus incentive fee and cost plus fixed fee contract for launch capability for the Delta IV and Atlas V. The location of the performance is Littleton. The work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2013. The contracting activity is SMC/LRK, Los Angeles AFB, Calif. NAVY
ARMY Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., was awarded a $242,247,456 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure UH-60M Plus-Up Helicopters. The work will be performed in Stratford, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 16, 2016. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-12-C-0008). NAVY
ARMY General Dynamics Land Systems Inc., Sterling Heights, Mich., was awarded a $395,462,993 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract. The award will provide for the research, development and testing for the Engineering Change Proposal in support of the Abrams tank. The work will be performed in Sterling Heights and Lima, Ohio, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2020. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-12-C-0322).
CYBER ACTION: Despite near-unanimous agreement about the need to shore up U.S. cyber defenses, Congress has not been able to agree on the details of cybersecurity legislation. Now Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is among the lawmakers calling on President Barack Obama to address the issue through his executive authority.
Lockheed Martin is not planning to notify its employees of layoffs related to the potential $1 trillion in federal spending cuts due to take effect Jan. 2. The company’s decision is in response to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) telling contractors the government will assume liability for businesses that do not warn employees of layoffs related to massive potential budget cuts known as sequestration.
EADS and BAE Systems are facing even stronger headwinds for their merger plans 10 days ahead of the Oct. 10 deadline, with the CEO of major EADS shareholder Lagardere issuing a public statement demanding significant changes to the negotiated arrangements. Lagardere CEO Arnaud Lagardere says that “despite the industrial and strategic logic attributed to it, this plan has not yet demonstrated that it was creating value for EADS.” Therefore “Lagardere considers that the merger conditions between EADS and BAE Systems are currently unsatisfactory.”
The Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) has been working with Défense Conseil International (DCI) and Symbiotics Ltd, to implement a new aircrew pre-selection solution that helps stream potential pilots (fixed and rotary wing) into the QEAF elite flying training programme, whilst improving efficiency of assessment and recruitment programmes.
BRUSSELS — Astrium Services will procure military satcom services on behalf of five European nations as part of a three-year agreement with the European Defense Agency (EDA), the first such contract awarded under EDA’s new European Satellite Communications Procurement Cell (ESCPC) initiative.
TOURS, France — An Australian-led high-speed propulsion research team is preparing to begin assembly of a scramjet-powered hypersonic demonstrator, following design changes to improve vehicle stability during its upcoming attempt at a Mach 8 flight test.
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is developing the chemistry to convert seawater into jet fuel. The most promising process, the Navy says, would catalytically convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas directly to liquid hydrocarbon fuel used as JP-5, a process being developed and honed by the NRL. If such a process can be practically developed, the effect on Navy fuel logistics would be significant.
Securely transporting data is proving to be a costly mission for the U.S. Navy, and a recent government report says the service needs to do a better job. “Telecommunications services,” which include data storage on tapes, compact disks and other devices, ranked 12th among all Navy expenses between 1999 and 2009 with about $8.2 billion in contracts and contract modifications, according to an exclusive Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of contracting data aggregated by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian unveiled a 2013 budget Sept. 28 that freezes defense spending at the 2012 level of €31.4 billion ($40 billion) while awaiting completion of a forthcoming defense strategy and new military program law early next year. Launched in July 2012, the new planning document “will end the gap between strategy and unrealistic spending,” the ministry stated in a news release.
French President Francois Hollande has approached Germany with the idea of creating a joint blocking minority stake in the new company that would be created as a result of the proposed merger of BAE Systems and EADS, according to industry sources. That status could be achieved as a result of various complex transactions and would ensure more government influence beyond the golden share proposal suggested by EADS CEO Tom Enders.
David Barger, president and CEO of JetBlue Airways, has joined the Dallas-based ISTAT Airlink Advisory Council. Barger also is chair of the FAA's NextGen Advisory Committee and a member of the board of governors and treasurer of the Flight Safety Foundation.
EADS and BAE Systems are scrambling on several fronts to put together their proposed merger, and while decisions in favor or against the deal are being made in Paris, London and Berlin, Washington is playing an important role, too. BAE Systems executives believe any threat from the merger to its special security agreement (SSA) with the U.S. government would be a “deal breaker,” says an industry official close to the talks. Each SSA is tailored to the specific business of a particular company.
Irkut, a subsidiary of Russia's United Aircraft Corp., began flight tests of the twin-seat Sukhoi Su-30SM multirole fighter with two aircraft in late September.
