As the U.S. Navy and nation consider whether to refuel or decommission the CVN-73 aircraft carrier USS George Washington, the chief executive of the company that does the work says skipping the fueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) on the ship will not disrupt the future carrier overhaul workforce.
SpeedNews 2nd Annual Aerospace Manufacturing Conference Registration Open April 1-2, 2014 The Battle House Renaissance Mobile, Alabama Supported by ATI Click here to view the pdf
With Seoul’s March 24 announcement of its long-held intent to purchase the F-35A, South Korea is likely securing an offset deal that will include a new military communications satellite and technical assistance in the country’s plans to develop an indigenous stealthy KF-X fighter.
Lower-than-expected reliability threatens the future of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, along with doubts as to whether the Pentagon can afford the planned production rate, according to the latest report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The program’s continued failure to develop and test mission software on schedule will also either result in delayed initial operational capability (IOC) dates, or in further reductions to the capability delivered at IOC, the report predicts.
ARMY AAI Corp. Hunt Valley, Md., was awarded a $38,523,230 modification (P00120) to contract W58RGZ-08-C-0023 to purchase five tactical common data link retrofit kits and mobile maintenance facility spares sets for the Shadow unmanned aircraft systems for the U.S. Marine Corps. Fiscal 2014 other procurement funds in the amount of $38,523,230 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is May 31, 2017. The work will be performed at Hunt Valley. Army Contracting Command is the contracting activity. NAVY
The U.S. Navy’s proposed fiscal 2015 spending plan continues to put a charge in programs meant to improve the service’s ability to conduct electromagnetic maneuver warfare. “In addition to the actions to improve air and missile defense and sustain our advantage in the undersea and information domains, our program enhances our ability to maneuver freely in the electromagnetic spectrum, while denying adversaries’ ability to do the same,” says Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations.
RADIO EQUIPMENT: The U.S. Navy has awarded Rockwell Collins an $8.2 million contract modification for the purchase of AN/ARC-210(V) electronic radios and ancillary equipment for a variety of aircraft, the Pentagon announced March 24. Equipment being procured includes 57 control radio sets, 57 high-power amplifiers, 57 low-noise amplifier diplexers and 62 receiver transmitters. The work will be performed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is expected to be completed by May 2015. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
New analysis of satellite data confirms that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370’s last known position was southwest of Perth over a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean, leading officials to conclude the Boeing 777 went down in the water, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday evening.
Inmarsat leveraged a “groundbreaking but traditional mathematics-based process” to analyze data from other flights that use its satellite network and establish a pattern that helped investigators nail down Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s (MH370) final flight path as traveling south over the Indian Ocean, an Inmarsat executive explains.
Tight budgets and a different threat environment make it both necessary and possible to save taxpayer money on expensive military space hardware, particularly if commercial practices can be applied to some aspects of milspace procurement, according to industry and government representatives who helped draft a new Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) report on the subject.
MILAN — Israeli officials have said they are considering closer cooperation with Italy as part of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The two countries have widened their defense ties following the signing in 2011 of a deal for Israel to purchase the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 jet trainer, while Italy in return plans to purchase two airborne early warning aircraft and an optical reconnaissance satellite from Israeli companies. Senior Israeli military leaders are promoting further opportunities.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) mar. 25 - 26 — Global Supply Chain Summit, "The Impact of Security on the Global Economy," Sheraton Seattle Hotel, Seattle, Washinton. For more information go to www.ndia.org/meetings/4320/Pages/default.aspx
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using video playback of “previous incidents” of nose-wheel landings and pilot-induced oscillations as part of new required annual training for pilots of its General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft. The action comes in the wake of an MQ-9 hard landing and excursion off the side of the 10,000-ft. “skid strip” runway at Patrick AFB, Cape Canaveral, Fla., after a routine patrol of the warning areas to the east of the launch facility in May 2013.
ORION SLIP: The first spaceflight of NASA’s Orion crew capsule, with an instrumented prototype riding atop a Delta IV Heavy, may not come until December. Originally scheduled for September, the Experimental Test Flight-1 (EFT-1) mission first was first bumped to October by range-scheduling issues at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. Now it has slipped to Dec. 4, according to Orion prime Lockheed Martin, with a “protect date” in October in case the logjam clears.
LONDON — Missile manufacturer MBDA says firing trials of its Dual-Mode Brimstone missile from the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle were successful, but a final decision on whether the weapon will be integrated with the UAS is yet to be made. The trials, conducted at China Lake, Calif., during December 2013 and January 2014, were led by the U.K. Royal Air Force but also involved the U.S. Air Force’s Big Safari program office and General Atomics.
Autonomous collaboration could enable existing unmanned aircraft to operate more effectively in less-permissive environments, says the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), revealing details of its new Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program. CODE aims to increase the capabilities of legacy and future unmanned aircraft through increased vehicle autonomy and collaboration between platforms. Industry will be briefed on the program April 11 in Washington.
Science, human-exploration and technology managers at NASA are casting a wide net for input into the agency’s proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), issuing a broad area announcement for concept studies that include using commercial space vehicles to capture a near-Earth space rock and deploying secondary payloads as far afield as the moons of Mars for mineral prospecting as well as planetary science.
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LONDON and MILAN — The prospect of further cuts to Italy’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter buy have increased, with the publication of a report calling for “significant” reductions in the country’s agreement with Lockheed Martin. The document, signed by the ruling center-left Democratic Party earlier this week and published on March 19, comes just days after newly elected Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi suggested Italy could cut its JSF purchase, as the Italian government struggles to bring down state spending.
