U.S. Navy officials are downplaying the recent failure of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom to pass a special pre-ship-trial inspection, saying, among other things, that these types of reviews are more rigorous than before. But the Freedom has a checkered past when being subjected to tests and inspections, resulting in truncated sea trials and even a delayed entry into the Panama Canal.
UAV APPETITE: The U.S. Department of Defense spent $5.25 billion on unmanned aerial systems in 2010, with the U.S. Air Force taking the largest piece of the pie, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan. “Most of the $2.42 billion the Air Force has earmarked for UAS spending in 2012 is for the procurement of the MQ-9 Predator,” the group reports. Fiscal 2011 government contracts awarded specifically for the U.S. military UAS market amounted to $3.78 billion. The biggest program winners included the ER/MP MQ-1 Gray Eagle, MQ-9, and RQ-4, Frost states.
MADRID — Airbus Military is working on a series of upgrades for the C-295 military airlifter, with winglets to undergo flight trials next year and flight testing with the Marte anti-ship missile to take place this year. For the winglets, “the design is already done,” with everything to be ready to fly by year-end, says Miguel Angel Morell, Airbus Military senior vice president and head of engineering. The concept was first developed for the airborne early warning version, but the company sees broader applications.
U.S. ARMY Alliant Techsystems, Inc., Plymouth, Minn., was awarded a $58,272,447 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure Spider XM-7 networked munitions systems. Work will be performed in Plymouth, Minn.; Wilmington, Mass.; and Rocket Center, W.Va., with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15QKN-11-C-0126).
MADRID — Airbus Military is selling eight C-295s to Oman and expects to sign more deals in the coming months, as it anticipates booking potentially more than 30 new orders this year. After signing deals for only five light transports last year, Airbus Military has already secured more than 20 orders so far in 2012, notes Antonio Rodriguez Barberan, the company’s senior commercial vice president.
The U.S. Defense Department needs to spend less time and money identifying and buying existing equipment to meet urgent combat needs, says a recently released U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
u.s. AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $51,284,530 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for Multi Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program radar system development and demonstration, ECP-025, radar modification for Global Hawk Block 40. The location of the performance is Norwalk, Conn. Work is to be completed by March 2015. AMC/ESC, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-00-C-0100 P00233).
A fifth Boeing C-17 Globemaster III airlifter has been delivered to the United Arab Emirates air force. A sixth will be added the the UAE fleet laterthis year.
EDINBURGH — Selex Galileo hopes to build on its success in having its Aircraft Gateway Processor (AGP) included as baseline hardware in the U.S. Army-Boeing AH-64D Block 3 program to expand the customer base for the electronic warfare equipment.
GENOA — Italy is developing a new modular approach to countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that will employ a number of specialized vehicles based on the Iveco VTMM multirole medium tactical vehicle chassis. The concept is to operate a “train” of four vehicles, each of them providing a dedicated capability, to defeat or dispose of every kind of potential threat, from unexploded ordnance to mines or IEDs.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) is assessing international interest in the ability to enable third-party payload integration on its Predator B unmanned aircraft after completing a proof-of-concept demonstration using company funds. A “sovereign payload” capability would allow payload providers and system integrators other than GA-ASI to develop their own control software and ultimately integrate payloads on to the Predator on behalf of specific customer countries.
Multi-network Link 16 capability and the addition of a high-bandwidth data link are the next steps for the Multifunction Information Distribution System (MIDS) widely used by U.S. and allied forces. Development of the added capability is now under way following the approval for full production and fielding of the software-defined MIDS Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Link 16 terminal.
A Panama Canal official confirms what Adm. Jonathan Greenert, U.S. chief of naval operations, has been saying for months—upcoming canal changes and improvements are likely to shift shipping trends and, therefore, warrant watching. The newly widened canal, set to open in early 2015, will attract larger ships—especially bulk carriers—laden with liquid natural gas and similar cargo, Oscar Bazan, canal marketing manager, tells Aviation Week.
For a country with one of the world's most immediately pressing defense problems, South Korea spends a lot of money on weapons with wider applications. Its ambitions for power-projection capability reaching far beyond the Korean peninsula are becoming increasingly obvious. Indeed, the defense ministry has, perhaps unintentionally, brought the issue into focus with a rare public discussion of its indigenous land-attack missiles, especially a cruise missile program that has been flying under the radar of Western public attention.
Will radar become the sensor of choice for everything from landing in rotor-blown sand to tracking people through cloud cover? Does millimeter-wave radar have the potential to displace electro-optical/infrared as the preferred source of full-motion video for surveillance and targeting?
The V-22 is finally proving the value of marrying the vertical lift of a helicopter with the speed of a fixed-wing aircraft after a tumultuous and prolonged development phase.
The Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) today signed a contract with Airbus Military for the acquisition of eight C295 aircraft, five of them configured as tactical transports and three as maritime patrol aircraft (MPA).
