USAF HELOS: The U.S. Air Force is continuing in hopes of buying a new personnel recovery helicopter, after the collapse of its earlier Combat Search and Rescue-X program. The new effort, dubbed the Combat Rescue Helicopter, would begin in fiscal 2013, with buys planned as early as 2016. But the Air Force has once again sidelined an effort to recapitalize its nuclear missile field support helicopters by shelving its plans for a Common Vertical Lift Support Program (CVLSP) rotorcraft and is opting instead to consider buying used Hueys from the U.S.
THE PENTAGON — While the H-1 Huey/Super Cobra garnered increased funding in the fiscal 2013 budget request, the MH-60R, MH-60S and V-22 Osprey all took a hit. The Huey/Super Cobra’s 2013 request is about $852 million for 28 aircraft, compared to about $802 million for 26 helicopters for fiscal 2012.
SINGAPORE — The U.S. and Saudi Arabian governments have finalized the letter of acceptance for the sale of 36 Boeing AH-6i helicopters, marking the formal launch of the program. The deal was concluded in recent weeks, says Jeff Kohler, vice president for business development at Boeing Military Aircraft. The agreement follows completion of contractual discussions last year with Saudi Arabia over the sale of 84 F-15SAs and the refurbishment of 70 F-15S fighters to the “SA” configuration.
New programs to continue research into boost-glide hypersonic weapons for tactical and global precision strike are included in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) $2.82 billion budget request for fiscal 2013.
THE PENTAGON — After years of shipbuilding plans that congressional analysts thought were removed from fiscal reality, the U.S. Navy finally appears to be charting a more realistic course. In years past, analysts at the Congressional Research Service and Congressional Budget Office have said the service simply wanted or said it needed more ships than it could afford with the money it was budgeted to spend.
Bottom line up front on the U.S. Army’s fiscal 2013 budget request: Communications and rotary-wing aircraft win, most new ground vehicles live to fight another day, and the service’s modernization plans look pretty secure. While the service is being forced to trim about 80,000 soldiers over the next five years, it is still investing in upgrades to existing platforms. In fiscal 2013, the Army plans to spend about $3.6 billion on its top three rotary-wing aviation programs and $10.6 billion on ground vehicle programs, the Defense Department announced Feb. 13.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Air Force’s $154.3 billion fiscal 2013 budget request — roughly $12 billion less than the service requested in 2012 — includes termination of two aircraft efforts aimed at building partnerships with allies, as well as a new missile outlined for use in stealthy aircraft.
The Obama administration is proposing $525.4 billion in fiscal 2013 base defense spending, along with $88.5 billion for overseas operations — the first real reduction in military spending over the last decade. And it proposes to cap future war spending at $450 billion through 2021.
PUT OFF: The U.S. Air Force is effectively punting on procuring a new fast-jet trainer, dashing the hopes of industry players vying to compete for the T-38C replacement program. Aircraft development will begin in the future years defense plan, but there is no significant funding set aside in the fiscal 2013 request. Air Force officials still plan, however, to begin buying a replacement trainer in 2017.
THE PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy’s topline fiscal 2013 baseline budget request of about $155.9 billion is a study in compromise, protecting some of the service’s signature programs by reducing some, delaying some, and scuttling some other programs altogether. The request is about $9.5 billion less than planned for in the fiscal 2012 budget, and the proposed Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) includes about $58 billion less than had been planned going into the middle part of the decade.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s fiscal 2013 budget request of about $10 billion — roughly $344.4 million less than the fiscal 2012 plan — looks to fully fund a sixth National Security Cutter (NSC) and start efforts to buy a new polar icebreaker. Shipbuilding analysts have come to herald the NSCs as a major success story and the Coast Guard has made it clear it would like to buy as many of the ships as it can.
Hawker Beechcraft Defense Company (HBDC) today announced its AT-6 Light Attack aircraft has successfully employed laser-guided rockets during recent test sorties at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
Pratt & Whitney used the Singapore Airshow today to announce a $19.2 million material management programme (MMP) contract with three, one-year options from the United States Air Force in support of F100-PW-220E engines powering the Royal Jordanian Air Force fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters.
BUDGET COVERAGE: When the U.S. government’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal is released on Feb. 13, Aviation Week Intelligence Network subscribers should be sure to visit http://www.aviationweek.com/2013budget, which will feature all the latest budgetary and programmatic news, data and analysis grouped together in one place. (See p. 7 of this issue for a budget preview chart.) To allow for all the latest budget news to be included, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report subscribers should expect a delay in the arrival of their issue dated Feb. 14.
Lockheed Martin will unveil a reduced-cost C-130XJ variant of the Hercules airlifter at the Singapore Airshow, one that is aimed at customers requiring only a small fleet of aircraft capable of being equipped to perform special missions in addition to providing tactical transport. With 246 C-130Js delivered and another 71 in backlog, the company believes it has barely scratched the surface of the market to replace the 1,200 Hercules airlifters operated by 72 countries worldwide, many requiring fleets of only 4-8 aircraft.
DELAYED PIT: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says the Obama administration will announce a delay to planned construction of a Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory facility that would enable the U.S. to produce more plutonium pits, the core of modern nuclear weapons. The administration will announce its fiscal 2013 budget request Feb. 13, and senior officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management will host a conference call at 4 p.m. EST.
NEW DELHI — India successfully test-fired an interceptor missile Feb. 10 from a base in India’s eastern state of Orissa as part of its two-layer ballistic missile defense program, according to a senior Indian defense official.
The U.S. Army’s Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) effort — the cornerstone of its tactical communications, surveillance and intelligence-sharing modernization — looks like it will emerge from the fiscal 2013 budget rollout in pretty good shape, according to Army officials. The program currently anticipates its next evaluation in May, while working on plans for capability evaluations to continue through 2013 and into fiscal 2014, according to service spokesman Paul Mehney.
The U.S. Air Force plans to commence a service-life extension program (SLEP) for up to 350 of the newest Lockheed Martin F-16s to keep the fleet as combat-ready as possible while the F-35’s in-service date remains uncertain. The $2.8 billion SLEP program is larger in scope than a structural SLEP eyed two years ago. This new program, which is being included in the fiscal 2013 budget proposal, will address requirements for adding an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar to the single-engine fighter.
NEW DELHI — Boeing is in talks with the Indian navy on a follow-on order of four P-8I maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft in addition to the eight ordered in 2009. “We have been in discussion with the Indian navy on advancing the options,” says Dennis Swanson, vice president of international business development for Boeing Defense, Space & Security in India. “We are working with the customer [India] and the customer will decide when the time is appropriate. We stand by ready to engage with them.”
Recent Lockheed Martin Aegis combat system upgrades—the Advanced Capability Build (ACB)-12 and its accompanying multi-mission signal processor (MMSP) for ballistic mission defense (BMD) enhancements—are running behind schedule and over cost projections, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.
Marie Epstein (see photo) has been promoted to VP-sales for the Americas from regional sales manager at Virgin Atlantic Cargo in New York. She was director of strategic accounts at Delta Air Lines/Northwest Airlines Cargo.
The majority of the 161 unclassified milsats forecast for production in the next decade will go into service in the near term with production tapering in the outyears.
