Aerospace and defense companies large and small plan to hire in 2013. While much of the hiring will replace workers leaving for retirement or a new opportunity, the numbers also include some all-new jobs and new skills.

As a war-weary nation grapples with how to cut military spending and a dysfunctional Congress allows meat-ax budget cuts to fall on the Defense Department and NASA, one might expect that the U.S. aerospace and defense (A&D) industry's best and brightest talent would be heading for the exits. Indeed, one-in-five A&D professionals under the age of 35 submitted resignations in 2012, up from 12% the year before. The good news: most left to go work for another aerospace company.

Setting up a component repair facility halfway around the world is no small undertaking, but SR Technics is on track to open its new repair facility in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December. The new shop will complement the company’s existing repair network with locations in Switzerland, Spain and Abu Dhabi, as well as support the growth of its Integrated Component Services (ICS) business.

Boeing and General Electric are conducting flight tests of a 747-8 to study the buildup of ice crystals in the aircraft’s GEnx-2B engines as part of an investigation into an in-flight icing event on a Russian-operated freighter which damaged three engines.

Boeing this fall will launch a line maintenance applications suite for mobile devices with an unidentified customer, following a year of development. “Airlines are using more mobile technology every day, and the mobile platform is an ideal tool for mechanics to have the information when and where they need it, and to share that information with other experts or departments across the company,” says Elizabeth Holleman, a representative for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Digital Aviation Business, in Renton, Wash.

FAA is developing an order that will require inspections of Honeywell ELTs

What started in the cockpit and on the hangar floor is now touching the tarmac, making its presence felt in line maintenance and ground operations. The migration of mobile information technology is something short of a torrent, but “I think it’s going to accelerate very quickly,” says Freelon Hunter, Boeing’s director of fleet and maintenance solutions for Commercial Aviation Services. The use of mobile devices has grown 100% in the space of a year and he contends that within five years “a standard part of the mechanic’s tool [kit] will be a mobile device.”

If there are winners in a high-stakes, high-expectations program that generated a mere 262 orders in its first 13 years, then the engine OEM with a 55% share of the business would qualify. Measuring by total aircraft in service and awaiting delivery, the Engine Alliance (EA) GP7200 is the preferred powerplant for Airbus A380 customers, winning 134 of 243 orders with engine choices specified. (Three orders on the books—officially, at least—totaling 19 aircraft remain without engine choices.)