LONDON — The French and British governments are looking to rationalize the development of what they call complex weapons capabilities with industrial partner and missile manufacturer MBDA. The plan is revealed in a communique following the one-day summit between U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on Jan. 31.
NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) mission will spend an extra 28 days circling the Moon at low altitude to extend observations of the tenuous atmosphere for an additional light/dark lunar cycle. The extension will postpone Ladee’s anticipated impact with the surface until about April 21.
LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry has accelerated plans to introduce a helicopter-borne early warning radar system for the country’s new aircraft carriers. The Crowsnest program is expected to integrate an airborne early warning (AEW) radar onto the Royal Navy’s AgustaWestland Merlin Mk. 2 helicopters, replacing the capability provided by the Westland Sea King Mk. 7s carrying the Thales Searchwater radar, which will be retired at the end of March 2016.
ARMY GTI Systems Inc., Auburndale, Fla., was awarded a $78,200,000 firm-fixed-price foreign military sales multiyear contract for practice bombs and accoutrements. Funding and work performance location will be determined with each order. Estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2018. Bids were solicited via the Internet with three received. Army Contracting Command - Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-14-D-0042).
ARMY General Dynamics, Sterling Heights, Mich. was awarded a $72,690,235 firm-fixed-price contract for the acquisition of 12 M1A2 System Enhanced Package v2 tanks. Fiscal 2013 other procurement funds in the amount of $15,712,969 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is Dec. 31, 2015. One bid was solicited with one received. The work will be performed in Lima, Ohio; Scranton, Pa.; Anniston, Ala.; and Tallahassee, Fla. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich. is the contracting activity (W56HZV-14-C-0054).
HOUSTON — Russia’s trash-laden Progress 52 capsule departed the International Space Station Feb. 3, opening a berthing port for the country’s first resupply mission of 2014. Progress 54 is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 5 at 11:23 a.m. EST, or 10:23 p.m. local time, initiating a four-orbit, 6-hr. automated rendezvous and docking at the ISS Pirs docking compartment. Progress 54 is scheduled to deliver 2.8 tons of fuel, research gear and other provisions to the six-person orbiting science laboratory.
The U.S. Navy needs more data about how F-35B Joint Strike Fighters and MV-22 Ospreys will affect LHA-6 large-deck amphibious ship operations, according to the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E). Military officials point out DOT&E reports provide programmatic snapshots that are often dated and Navy officials in January detailed modifications they are making to the amphib to accommodate the aircraft (AWIN, Jan. 15).
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NASA should have enough money in its fiscal 2014 appropriation to support development of at least two competing commercial crew vehicles, and the Senate panel that funds the U.S. space agency will try to keep that going in fiscal 2015, according to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs it.
Republican leaders of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee are questioning the Obama administration’s credibility in negotiating new nuclear arms reductions with Russia or any deal with Iran as concerns linger over whether the former is cheating on past treaties.
BRISTOW LEADERSHIP: Bristow Group CEO and President Bill Chiles plans to retire at the end of July from the helicopter operator. Chiles, who became CEO in 2004, is expected to step down at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders on July 31 and be succeeded by Jonathan Baliff, the company’s current senior vice president and CFO. Chiles also will step down from the board of directors, but will remain an employee until July 2016.
HOUSTON — NASA’s 2013 Asteroid Initiative Idea Synthesis Workshop produced nearly 30 recommendations for refining strategies to identify, capture and maneuver a seven- to 10-meter near-Earth object into lunar orbit for a visit by astronauts. The proposed undertaking has emerged from its first U.S. budget cycle, but is still in search of significant U.S. Congressional and international backing.
THREAT ASSESSMENT: U.S. lawmakers will be boning up on threats and conditions facing the U.S. during Capitol Hill hearings this week. Topping the list is cyberspace, according to related testimony last week by the director of national intelligence. “I have not experienced a time when we’ve been beset by more crises and threats around the globe,” James Clapper told the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. The hearings began Feb. 3 with a closed-door House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee session on ongoing intelligence activities.
LONDON — AirTanker, the company charged with providing the U.K. Royal Air Force with its new generation tanker fleet, has taken delivery of its seventh Airbus A330 Voyager multi-role tanker transport aircraft.
The U.S. Navy plans to introduce its new Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) into the fleet on the EA-18G in 2020, though development has slipped six months as a result of its bid protest.
NEW DELHI — With general elections expected before May, corruption scandals over high-profile defense deals, and a deflated rupee, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony, who has cultivated an image of integrity, has taken a go-slow approach on vitally needed military equipment projects.
PARIS — France and Britain have signed a framework agreement on space cooperation in the areas of Earth observation, telecommunications, space-based weather forecasting and technology. The agreement, signed during a Franco-British defense summit held at RAF Brize Norton in southern England Jan. 31, includes an initial U.K. investment of £15 million ($25 million) for key instruments being developed for the next generation of European weather satellites.
BIG GUNS: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, Raytheon and General Dynamics are the top five defense contractors worldwide, according to the latest assessment of the industry by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). Rounding out the top 10 for 2012—the last year of full data available for comparison—were Northrop Grumman, EADS (now Airbus Group), United Technologies, Finmeccanica and L-3 Communications.
While India remains the biggest spender among U.S. allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific, Indonesia plans to grow its spending at an even faster clip through fiscal 2023, according to an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) data analysis.
