The UAE's aerobatics display team, Al Fursan, is to take its place among the world's top military performers when it makes a debut appearance at the UK's Royal International Air Tattoo in July.
SINGAPORE — Indonesia is planning to buy new radars that will be used for national defense and commercial air traffic management. Lockheed Martin is proposing its TPS-77 and FPS-117 surveillance radars. In an effort to boost its chances of securing the contract, Lockheed Martin has teamed with local, privately owned company PT CMI Teknologi.
WORKING ON IT: Touting its American bona fides and striving to appear responsive to its customers’ needs, Sierra Nevada said Feb. 15 it is “exploring ways” to mitigate expected delays in meeting the April 2013 delivery schedule for the first aircraft under the U.S. Air Force’s embattled Light Air Support (LAS) contract. Rival Hawker Beechcraft has mounted a legal and public relations campaign to undo the USAF award to Sierra and Embraer, whose work was stopped last month under a subsequent USAF order due to the litigation.
NEW DELHI – India’s largest company by market capitalization, Reliance Industries Ltd., and France’s Dassault Aviation have signed an initial pact to work together in the Indian defense and homeland security sector, a Reliance official says. The agreement comes less than two weeks after Dassault emerged as the lowest bidder for a multibillion-dollar order to supply 126 Rafale fighters to the Indian air force. Indian Defense Minister A. K. Antony said it was a long process and the deal was not expected to be signed in the current financial year.
Dallas – Boosted by military training contracts, light piston and turbine helicopter maker Enstrom is ramping up production as it looks to rack up back-to-back record years. “We are making a dent in the industry” says Jerry Mullins, president/CEO of the Michigan-based manufacturer. Although a relatively small player compared with other manufacturers competing in the training market, Enstrom is riding a building wave which shows signs of swelling throughout the business.
Washington – The budgets for at least three airborne directed energy weapons are being fully protected by the U.S. Air Force in fiscal 2013 budget plans, a top researcher says. Specifically, they are the platforms to carry high-power microwave warheads that are being developed in parallel. The longest range device is the Boeing-made Champ cruise missile.
SPAIN-BOUND SHIPS: The U.S. Navy has named the four Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyers to be forward deployed to Rota, Spain, including three from Norfolk, Va. – the USS Ross, the USS Donald Cook, and the USS Porter – as well as one from Mayport, Fla., the USS Carney. The ships will support President Barack Obama’s European Phased Adaptive Approach for ballistic missile defense to enhance the security of the European region. Ross and Donald Cook will arrive in fiscal 2014 and Carney and Porter in fiscal 2015.
Partisan posturing over how to avoid steep spending reductions at the Pentagon is in full swing, as Republicans try to pin blame on the Obama administration for not engaging fully on deficit reduction. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s weeklong series of hearings on Capitol Hill has given him a platform for pointing out that Congress passed the law that set those spending cuts in motion and that it is Congress’s responsibility to fix it.
In observance of U.S. Presidents’ Day, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish an issue dated Feb. 21. The next issue will be dated Feb. 22. Aviation Week Intelligence Network subscribers may visit www.aviationweek.com/awin at any time for news updates.
ABOARD THE USS KEARSARGE — In his nonfiction book “Marine,” author Tom Clancy says, “Amphibious warfare is one of the most expensive and risky forms of combat ever devised. You have to move difficult and unruly cargo (combat troops) … and bring them through hostile waters to an enemy shore. You have to then deliver them, with all of their equipment and supplies, onto a beach.” After just a couple of days aboard the amphibious landing helicopter dock ship LHD-3 USS Kearsarge during a major coastal exercise, it’s easy to understand what Clancy means.
Rome and Ft. Worth, Texas – Italy has slashed its planned purchase of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters by 41 aircraft, Italian Defense Minister Giampaolo Di Paola says. The country will now buy 90 JSFs instead of 131. Italy will purchase both F-35A and F-35B variants and assign them to its navy and air force, replacing its AV-8B Harrier II, AMX, and Tornado fighter bomber.
Click here to view the pdf Winners & Losers In the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army 2013 U.S. Budget Requests (Base Request + OCO, $ in thousands) Winners & Losers In the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army 2013 U.S.
Among the Navy’s big aircraft procurement programs, the V-22 Osprey suffered the most severe cut of all in the Obama administration’s 2013 budget proposal, worse than the F-35C carrier variant. Funding across the Future Years Defense Program hovers around $1.5 billion each year for a total of $6.2 billion. Against the 42% cut, an increase in the program’s advance procurement plan is trivial.
Concerns are being aired by military analysts in the U.S. and bloggers in the Middle East that Syria is sending its surface-to-air missiles and long-range ballistic missiles to Lebanon’s Hezbollah-controlled Bekaa Valley for safekeeping. U.S. defense officials say such moves might be “plausible” if the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is truly threatened, but so far no significant shift has been observed.
INTELLIGENCE REQUEST: The Obama administration is requesting $71.8 billion for national and military intelligence programs in fiscal 2013. The total budget in fiscal 2010, the last year of fully released figures, was $80.1 billion. The total budget comprises the National Intelligence Program, covering the CIA and other agencies, and the Military Intelligence Program, covering the National Security Agency and others. For fiscal 2013, the administration is asking for $52.6 billion for the former and $19.2 billion for the latter. Details are largely classified.
SINGAPORE — Lockheed Martin has unveiled the F-16V, a new variant and upgrade package that includes datalinks allowing the aircraft to operate alongside the F-35 and F-22. In a separate development, Lockheed Martin is developing new variants of the C-130, including the XJ (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 13).
Click here to view the pdf Winners & Losers In the U.S. Air Force 2013 U.S. Budget Request (Base Request + OCO, $ in thousands) Winners & Losers In the U.S. Air Force 2013 U.S.
SINGAPORE — Airbus Military’s effort to sell C295 tactical airlifters to Indonesia has finally come to fruition, with a deal for nine of the military aircraft. The contract comes after Airbus has committed itself to work with Indonesia to help rebuild the country’s aerospace industrial expertise. Deliveries will begin this year and run through to 2014.
Even after reports about new problems with Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, lawmakers are looking for reassurance from the Pentagon brass of a continued commitment to the military’s largest weapons program.
SINGAPORE — Pratt & Whitney warns of mounting difficulties in its effort to control costs on some of its key military engine programs because of reductions in annual purchases of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s F135 engine and other powerplants. “As volumes reduce, it becomes more of a challenge” to reduce costs, says Pratt & Whitney Military Engines President Bennett Crosswell. However, he adds, so far the “need to reduce volumes has not resulted in increased cost.”
HOLDING PATTERN: The U.S. Army will await results from a forthcoming flight demonstration of candidate Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) helicopter designs that use existing technologies before setting aside AAS funding. Service officials hope to start the flight demonstration this spring using fiscal 2012 money. However, the fiscal 2013 budget request does not include any additional funding for a buy of AAS systems.
SINGAPORE — As the Indonesian air force works on its plan to field around 150-160 combat aircraft in 12 squadrons, it is starting to consider how to replace its fleet of F-5s. Current plans represent merely a “minimum essential force,” with the actual air force needs being much greater to provide the full range of military capability for a country the size of Indonesia, ACM Imam Sufaat, the service’s chief of staff, tells Aviation Week during the Singapore air show. The current force counts seven squadrons equipped with combat aircraft.
The FCC is indefinitely suspending LightSquared’s conditional waiver to operate its proposed 4G voice and data network in bands adjacent to those used by GPS, citing concerns that potential interference with GPS units could pose aviation safety risks. “The commission clearly stated from the outset that harmful interference to GPS would not be permitted,” the FCC says. “Consequently, the commission will not lift the prohibition on LightSquared.”
The proposed U.S. Navy fiscal 2013 budget would reduce the service’s fleet battle force to 284 ships from the fiscal 2012 level of 288. In the 2013 fiscal year, the Navy anticipates seven battle force ships to be delivered: one Virginia-class attack submarine; a LPD transport dock ship; a T-AKE dry-cargo ammunition vessel; a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS); a mobile landing platform (MLP); and two Joint High-Speed Vessels (JHSVs). But the service also plans to retire 11 ships: an aircraft carrier, six FFG frigates and four CG cruisers.
The Pentagon’s Special Operations Command and the U.S. Coast Guard are both exploring whether to take on the Air Force’s C-27J aircraft, which have been proposed for early retirement. This could be an opportunity for special operators to resurrect the defunct concept of modifying the C-27J into a gunship variant, dubbed the Stinger II, according to an industry official.
