LONDON — As part of its large border surveillance contract with Saudi Arabia’s government, EADS is considering the potential of using unmanned aircraft to monitor the vast desert. The thinking could lead to collaborative technology development with Saudi Arabia, says Aimo Buellte, vice president and head of research and technology at EADS Cassidian’s defense unit. An autonomous system may be the best method to monitor such a large area, he notes.
NEW DELHI — India will soon acquire a Hercules WC-130J aircraft and an unmanned aerial vehicle to ensure improved monitoring of cyclones, a senior government official says.
The U.S. Air Force has begun reducing the number of bases at which it plans to eventually house the new F-35 in an attempt to reduce the estimated life-cycle cost of the single-engine, stealthy fighter. Last year, the Pentagon disclosed an estimate of more than $1 trillion to operate the fighter for the next 50 years, raising significant concern from customers, including the U.S. Navy and Air Force. Since then, the services have been working to refine their plans to operate the jet in hopes of curbing operations and sustainment (O&S) cost.
NEW DELHI — India will induct its homegrown Akash surface-to-air missile (SAM) into the Indian air force (IAF) on March 3. “The Akash weapon system [AWS] was indigenously developed by [the] Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as part of the integrated guided missile development program and is an all-weather, medium-range, surface-to-air missile system,” a defense ministry official says. “It provides multidirectional and multitarget area defense.”
As part of its effort to demonstrate technologies that are designed to allow unmanned aircraft to operate in commercial airspace, EADS is planning another flight-test campaign using its Barracuda unmanned aircraft technology demonstrator. The trial will take place at Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada, during the summer, says the head of flight guidance at EADS’s Cassidian defense unit. The company would not disclose the demonstration’s technology goals.
SINGAPORE — Japan has called on the U.S. to stick to the agreed-upon price to purchase Lockheed Martin F-35s or it may cancel its order. “Our position is [for the U.S.] to adhere to its proposed price,” Japan Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka told journalists in Tokyo. “We are strongly requesting this.” The ministry also said it has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Defense warning that if the price of F-35s increases dramatically, the procurement may be canceled.
The U.S. Air Force has cleared the F-35A for initial flights at Eglin AFB, Fla., kicking off a process that will eventually lead to airborne pilot training.
LONDON — As the U.K. works on balancing its defense budget between now and 2015, the Defense Ministry’s long-term assumptions will leave room to make program adjustments.
The Air Force’s top officer says that the service’s mistake in selecting Sierra Nevada to build a small fleet of light attack aircraft for Afghanistan is a “profound disappointment.” The service announced it was terminating the $355 million contract to Sierra Nevada and restoring a proposal from Hawker Beechcraft “to the competitive range.” The Air Force disqualified Hawker Beechcraft from the competition in November and awarded the contract for an initial 20 Light Air Support aircraft to Sierra Nevada in December.
The Air Force chief of staff has put a rough estimate on the cost of the Next Generation Bomber – $550 million per copy for up to 100 aircraft. If the total program cost does equal about $55 billion, that would make the bomber a major acquisition program, though it would still be dwarfed by the cost of the Pentagon’s most expensive weapon system, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. A recent Congressional Research Service report places the cost at $379.4 billion to develop and buy the aircraft.
RADAR RECEIVERS: Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems of Goleta, Calif., has been awarded a $77,267,880 contract modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to exercise an option to purchase 89 full rate production Lot 14 AN/ALR-67(V)3 radar warning receivers and nine countermeasure signal processor weapons replacement assemblies, the Pentagon announced Feb. 29. The AN/ALR-67(V)3 enhances pilot situational awareness by providing accurate identification, lethality, and azimuth displays of hostile and friendly emitters.
The U.S. Navy is considering a second round of concept studies for the planned Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) system, after slipping service entry by two years to 2020 as part of its fiscal 2013 budget request. A solicitation notice posted on Feb. 24 says Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) is “considering the release of a competitive broad area announcement [BAA] for additional studies within the next 30 days.”
LONDON – Cost increases resulting from the U.S. decision to cut near-term F-35 Joint Strike Fighter purchases and defer procurement do not appear to be affecting the U.K.’s budgeting for purchase of its aircraft. “The resultant increases in aircraft costs are currently judged to be within the provision that the [Defense Ministry] has made in the current budget planning round and therefore will not impact upon the introduction into U.K. service in 2020,” the defense minister for equipment, Peter Luff, tells Parliament.
FORT LAUDERDALE – The Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle program has made it clear that the vehicles it is sending to the White Sands Missile Range this spring for “non-developmental” technology assessments are not being considered as replacements for the two technology demonstration vehicles being built by teams being led by BAE Systems and General Dynamics. But the list of vehicles the Army wants to evaluate keeps growing.
Firings of the first of two prototype electromagnetic (EM) railgun launchers have begun as the U.S. Navy moves a step closer to deploying the long-range, high-speed projectile weapon on its warships. The Office of Naval Research is testing the prototype “advanced containment launcher” (ACL), produced by BAE Systems, at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va. In April, General Atomics will deliver its ACL prototype to the center for testing. Both railguns will be fired at 20 and 32 megajoules muzzle energy.
The Army was more than happy to talk about its new “Agile Process” acquisition strategy during last week’s Association of the United States Army convention in Florida, trumpeting its ability to evaluate new nondevelopmental technologies in an operational setting at Fort Bliss, Texas, where the service fields an entire brigade of infantrymen whose sole job is to put new gear through the wringer.
LONDON – The Sentinel R1’s performance in Libya has bought the ground-surveillance system a stay of execution in the U.K., although a firm commitment to retain its capability is not expected until later. Near-term budget decisions, which still need to be finalized, are aimed at ensuring the system remains viable until 2015, Air Vice Marshal Mark Green, the Defense Ministry’s director of information superiority, tells IQPC’s Airborne ISR conference.
State-based leaders of the Air National Guard are starting to fight budget reductions to the reserve force. In a letter to the leaders of the congressional defense committees one day before the top leaders of the Air Force are scheduled to testify before the House Armed Services Committee, the adjutants general want lawmakers to put the brakes on the Air Force’s fiscal 2013 budget request.
The Pentagon and U.S. Navy are navigating a truer course for development of the Presidential VXX Helicopter, but hurdles still remain, a recent Government Accountability Office (GA) report says.
Wire strikes, which can down aircraft, are a constant threat to pilots, especially at night. Sandel Avionics of Vista, Calif., has developed a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) visual depiction and aural alert system called HeliTAWS ST3400H, designed to detect and warn helicopter pilots of impending threats from wires and transmission lines—as well as terrain—within a precalculated hazard proximity.
A ground-breaking deal between Britain's Defense Ministry and BAE Systems has provided the financial foundation for the company's new munitions factory. The £75 million ($120 million) plant is already producing a range of shell casings ahead of the final transfer in June of remaining staff and equipment from the 97-year-old factory at Birtley, 2 mi. away.
Antiship missiles and heavyweight torpedoes have been rarely used in combat against surface vessels in recent decades. But when they are, the result is so dramatic it rattles the nerves of navies everywhere, reminding them that cost-cutting in this area can be dangerous.
The U.S. Air Force talked until recently of just a 100-aircraft fleet of new bombers, but advocates are calling for more. Dave Deptula, the retired three-star general who headed reconnaissance programs for the armed service during recent wars, says that it's easy to get to a 200-aircraft bomber fleet—with one 12-aircraft squadron for each of 10 air expeditionary forces, and other aircraft to support strategic deterrence and cover attrition and depot maintenance.
