Boeing has been awarded a $277 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to support flight tests of the Raytheon Advanced Aerial Sensor (AAS) radar on the P-8A Poseidon maritime multimission aircraft.
The modification of the U.S. Navy’s aging Austin-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Ponce into a floating home base for mine hunters provides a road map for how the service and the rest of the military are going to have to do business in decades to come. With budget constraints pinching resources to develop, buy and deploy new vessels for emerging or increasing mission needs, the services will need to take their old equipment — even a four-decade-old warship like the Ponce — and alter it for new and novel uses.
The U.S. Army has stayed with experienced laser missile-jammer suppliers for the technology development phase of its Common Infrared Countermeasures (Circm) program, awarding contracts to BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman. ITT Excelis and Raytheon, both of which had hoped to enter the market through Circm, did not win contracts. Lockheed Martin was eliminated from the competition last year.
The U.S. Navy’s bolstered efforts to better maintain Aegis weapon systems are going well, but the service still has plenty of work to do, says the admiral who put the plan into action. “I have seen improvement across the board,” says Adm. John Harvey, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. “But are we done? Absolutely not.” At Harvey’s insistence, the Navy started a more robust maintenance and monitoring plan to get the radar and combat system problems under control.`
MANILA — Philippines President Benigno Aquino has reignited the debate about whether the country should get fighters. Following the U.S. agreement to give 24 second-hand F-16s to Indonesia for free, Aquino is now calling for the U.S. to give the Philippines a similar deal, and has tasked the Philippines Air Force (PAF) to look into it. The Philippines has had no fighters since 2005, when it phased out its last Northrop F-5s.
THINK TWICE: Foreign military sales, financing and other U.S. defense exports will help the U.S. industrial base in years to come, but do not expect a rising tide that lifts all boats, regardless of how companies promote their growing international revenue, says a Wall Street analyst. “While we think there will be winners in the quest for international growth, it will not be as robust as some investors may expect,” says Michael Lewis of Lazard Capital Markets.
MANILA — The Philippines Air Force (PAF) plans to buy more military transports, light attack aircraft and helicopters to help in the country’s ongoing fight against Muslim insurgents in the south.
LONDON — The U.K. on Feb. 1 unveiled its long-awaited defense industrial white paper, the first time the Defense Ministry addresses key sectoral issues since severe budget cuts were imposed and program adjustments put in place in the 2010 Strategic Defense and Security Review.
NEW DELHI — With French firm Dassault Aviation on the brink of signing a multibillion-dollar order to supply 126 Rafale fighter jets to the Indian air force (IAF), the Indian government may choose to enlarge the contract by adding 60 more aircraft. The size of the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract could eventually increase, as there is a provision for boosting the order by 50% without any increase in unit price, a defense ministry official says.
MANILA — The South China Sea dispute has led the Philippines to move to strengthen its military capability as quickly as possible as a hedge against maritime intrusions by China. The government is planning to sign contracts before the end of July for the purchase of military aircraft as part of its air force’s modernization program.
A cockpit upgrade for 20 U.S. Navy Lockheed Martin C-130Ts could be the first program to use a new open-systems avionics standard developed by government and industry to enable software reuse to speed the fielding of new capabilities. The first version of the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) technical standard was released Jan. 30, after just 18 months of work by a consortium formed under the auspices of open-systems standards organization The Open Group.
The top military officers in the U.S. Air Force and Army have signed a memorandum of agreement that outlines how the Air Force will provide direct airlift support to deployed Army units, an issue that had been a concern for some officers in light of a Pentagon decision to terminate the C-27J that was specifically purchased for that mission.
NEW DELHI and LONDON — The Indian government has named Dassault Aviation’s Rafale offering ahead of the Eurofighter Typhoon as the “lowest bidder” in the competition to supply at least 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to the Indian air force. The development effectively means Rafale has won the $11 billion competition unless contractual talks now due to unfold in the coming months derail and prevent a deal from being signed. Industrial offset and other details still need to be worked out.
HERON DOWN: Weeks after being declared operational, one of the Israeli air force’s strategic UAVs, the medium-altitude long-endurance Eitan (Heron TP), crashed during a test flight Jan. 29. One of five produced so far by prime contractor IAI, the 4,000-kg (9,000-lb.) Heron TP was tested carrying a new payload, apparently on the limit of its carrying capability. “What we know is that one of the wings broke,” said Maj. Gen. Ido Nechushtan, air force commander.
A homeland security mission assigned largely to the Air National Guard in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks still lacks a plan to deal with its aging aircraft, according to the draft of a U.S. Government Accountability Office report obtained by Aviation Week. The report is coming at a delicate time for the Air Force. Supporters of the Air National Guard are sensing that reductions will be announced with the Feb. 13 budget release and are already mobilizing their response.
GENOA — Avio’s continued growth is reflected in its 2011 results, which improved from the previous year despite the difficult economic scenario in Europe. The Italian aerospace propulsion company, which is led by Francesco Caio, reached the €2 billion ($2.6 billion) revenue mark, improving by 14.5%, compared with €1.75 billion the year before. The company’s operating results also improved, to €380 million, versus €360 million in 2010.
The U.S. Navy is studying its force structure in a review that could very well drop the floor on the 313-ship fleet that has anchored the nation’s maritime defense strategy for years. Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the relatively new chief of naval operations (CNO), has asked the top Navy command to generate a force structure study to take into account the new military strategy of the Obama administration, as well as the tighter fiscal reality that will be presented with the fiscal 2013 budget, says Adm. J.C. Harvey Jr., commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
The recent discovery by researchers in Rotterdam, Netherlands, that the lethal H5N1 avian flu virus could be genetically modified with relative ease into an airborne vector was the talk of the scientific community going into early 2012.
Robert Wall (London), David Hambling (Dubai), David Eshel (Tel Aviv)
Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have been proving grounds for unmanned air vehicle technology, but they have also highlighted the value of manned fighters to provide support for forces engaging irregular opponents. At the same time, such conflicts have been characterized by weak or nonexistent challenges to airpower, so the most expensive attributes of a fighter that enable it to survive against high-end threats are not needed.
Issues surrounding battery use are becoming critical as forces add more electronic gear to their loads. Chief among these are the amount of batteries needed for deployments, their service life and cost. Evgentech of Norcross, Ga., has developed a method of recharging batteries for personal electronics and other equipment that CEO Jackie Hutter says significantly reduces charge time and extends cycle life, thereby getting batteries back in use faster and potentially reducing the number needed.
Airbus Military could be one of the main beneficiaries of the Singapore air force's next round of procurements. Singapore has at the top of its procurement list aerial refueling tankers, strategic airlifters and anti-submarine warfare fixed-wing aircraft, purchases that will see that the island continues to be, for the next few years at least, the biggest spender on new defense equipment in Southeast Asia.
