Relations between Thailand and its neighbors have been improving, but some border disputes with Cambodia and Myanmar remain unresolved. This means intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) will continue to be an important requirement. There were incidents last year in which Thai and Cambodian troops exchanged gunfire near the ancient Khmer temple of Preah Vihear. Thai and Myanmar troops, meanwhile, exchanged gunfire in 2001 along their border, near the Thai town of Mae Sai.
The major tactical problems that analysts foresee in the Asia-Pacific theater are the anti-access, area-denial (A2AD) environments that could be created by the array of military products that China sells to other countries and incorporates into its own forces.
Boeing's decision to close its Wichita facility by the end of next year may be good for the company's books, but a senior U.S. Air Force official says it adds risk to its ability to execute the KC-46A aerial refueling contract.
Along with expanded missions and larger force structures, U.S. Pacific Command has a new chief, Adm. Samuel Locklear, 3rd, who most recently oversaw NATO-led operations in Libya and commanded the U.S. Navy in Europe and Africa. Locklear's new problem set will not be smaller, but it may be significantly different. He will face two daunting issues: China and cyber. Sometimes they will be the same problem and sometimes not.
That rearming after last year's NATO-led air war in Libya would bring some short-term financial benefits to weapons makers has been clear. Now, they are looking to build on those successes to generate additional business.
The U.S. faces a critical engineering shortage. U.S. high school students' science and math scores are off the international pace. Competitiveness is at risk. That's the conventional wisdom, now elevated to accepted truth. But a group of academics now argues that these assumptions are flat wrong.
As the Pentagon begins a 10-year reduction in its spending plans, its database of the vast network of companies that supply its prime contractors is already helping to spare companies from budget disaster.
U.S. Army aviation is offering industry a deal: Work with us to slow our procurement as budgets decline and we can continue to invest in the clean-sheet rotorcraft we both need; work against us to protect your individual programs and we will both get nothing. As the Army wrestles with its first budget cuts in more than 10 years, the aviation branch is trying to protect its long-term investment in advanced replacement rotorcraft under the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) initiative by slowing the near-term modernization.
A sprinter’s speed, reliance on aircraft and unmanned systems, and flexibility to deploy in disparate environments with different U.S. Navy vessels will anchor mission success for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) fleet, according to a copy of the LCS concept of operations (conops) obtained by the Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN).
The U.S. Air Force is modifying a request for proposals (RFP) for the botched Light Air Support (LAS) aircraft and plans to release it to industry within the next three weeks, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley says. The service originally selected Sierra Nevada/Embraer to build 20 Super Tucanos for use in Afghanistan, over a rival Hawker Beechcraft AT-6-based design. But the $355 million contract was abruptly terminated earlier this year after Hawker Beechcraft filed suit in federal claims court.
The U.S. Navy this week officially started construction on DDG-1002, the third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer. “Designed for sustained operations in the littorals and land attack, the multimission DDG-1000 class destroyers will provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operations forces, and operate as an integral part of joint and combined expeditionary forces,” the Navy said in a statement about the start of the DDG-1002 ship.
Boeing officials say they plan to emulate the certification process used for its commercial aircraft as much as possible to speed acceptance of the KC-46A refueling tanker being designed for the U.S. Air Force.
Lockheed Martin and Raytheon/Boeing are awaiting guidance from the U.S. Army on the restructured Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) program, and are expecting technology work to continue in lieu of moving into development and procurement. “JAGM is not dead,” says J.R. Smith, Raytheon’s business development manager for advanced missiles and unmanned systems. The weapon is intended to replace Hellfire, air-launched Tow and Maverick missiles.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A program to develop a 3,000-shp turboshaft will transition to the U.S. Army’s utility helicopter program office this year, with the goal of fielding more powerful engines on the Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk in 2019 to improve hot-and-high performance. General Electric and Honeywell/Pratt & Whitney are developing competing turboshafts under the Affordable Advanced Turbine Engine (AATE) technology demonstration, which will wrap up in fiscal 2013.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Boeing is preparing to fly an aerodynamic prototype for the MC-12S Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance Surveillance System (EMARSS) — a program the U.S. Army plans to terminate after completing development in 2013. A Boeing-owned Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350ER is at Summit Aviation being modified to the MC-12S external configuration, including extended sensor nose and fuselage-top Ka/Ku-band radome, and is expected to fly in May.
The Dutch defense budget is too tight to achieve the ambitions for the Royal Netherlands Air Force’s (RNLAF) F-16s, the Netherlands Court of Auditors concludes in a report on the fighter replacement effort. Auditors concluded that there is a growing imbalance between the Dutch government’s stated goals, the budget for flying hours, the number of pilots and the number of aircraft.
BOEING DELIVERIES: Boeing defense aircraft deliveries in the first quarter of this year were marked by the rising number of CH-47 Chinook completions, with 10 new-build helicopters handed over, compared to seven in the first quarter of last year and two the year before. A slowdown in C-17 deliveries saw just two aircraft handed over versus three for the previous quarters, while this year also marks the first delivery of a P-8A Poseidon in a first quarter.
The government is already struggling to overcome technical and procedural hurdles to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in civil airspace. Now the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are teaming up to make sure policy makers craft privacy rules for UAVs before they take flight. The two advocacy groups met last week to see where they have common ground.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Within two years, U.S. Army special forces will be operating more than 300 unmanned aircraft, says Brig. Gen. Kevin Mangum, commander of Army Special Operations Aviation Command (USASOAC). That total will include two companies of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1C Gray Eagle armed, medium-altitude, long-endurance UAVs.
DALLAS — Global military aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) spending was roughly $66 billion in 2011, but is expected to decline 2.7% this year because of reduced utilization and increased budgetary restrictions, according to consultancy ICF SH&E.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The U.S. Marine Corps has chosen a classified weapon to arm the AAI RQ-7B Shadow tactical unmanned aerial system (UAS) for a field evaluation in Afghanistan. “The weapon is classified. It’s a high-TRL [technology readiness level] system,” says Lt. Col. Scott Anderson, product manager for Shadow in the Army’s UAS program office, which is supporting the Marine Corps’ plan to weaponize the aircraft to meet an urgent operational need.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sikorsky and the U.S. Army have reached agreement on the eighth multiyear contract for the Black Hawk helicopter — the second for the UH-60M model — with a deal that allows the Army to achieve the projected savings while buying fewer aircraft than originally planned because of budget pressures. “We have a handshake on multiyear eight,” says Col. Thomas Todd, program manager for utility helicopters, speaking April 4 at the Army Aviation Association of America convention here.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Stood up only in October, the program office responsible for all the U.S. Army’s fixed-wing aircraft is awaiting Pentagon approval of its requirements document for a future utility aircraft to replace 117 Hawker Beechcraft C-12s operated in a variety of roles.
