USAF REVIEW: The National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force is due to report a long-awaited, congressionally charged set of recommendations on Jan. 30. While proponents of the National Guard are sure to get a lift from the blue-ribbon panel’s findings – a key reason why it was established – a major revamp of how active-duty and reserve Air Force and Air National Guard units are structured, equipped and funded is not expected.
The Pentagon’s chief test official is recommending that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) consider a redesign of its Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), the hit-to-kill mechanism used to down ballistic missiles mid-flight in the Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) System.
LONDON — The U.K. defense ministry says that trials of MBDA’s Brimstone direct-fire air-to-surface missile from a MQ-9 Reaper have been successfully completed in the U.S,. but no decision has yet been made whether to integrate the weapon with the UAV. Trials of the weapon took place in December and January on a range of “static and high-speed maneuvering targets,” a ministry spokesman said. “Trial data is being analyzed and will be fully evaluated. No decision on future trials has been made.”
LOS ANGELES — Despite continuing cutbacks in U.S. military and space spending, Boeing’s position on flagship defense and space initiatives produced a strong 2013 for the company’s Defense, Space & Security sector and will continue to sustain it into 2014.
U.S. manufacturers are working to reduce the fuel consumption of their military aircraft, but with the potential payoffs coming well beyond the horizon of hard-pressed Pentagon budget planners, it is proving difficult to get the initial investment needed to make progress. Savings from re-engining Lockheed Martin C-130 airlifters to reduce fuel burn 7.9%, for example, would not return the required $1.2 billion investment before 2024, says Donald Erbschloe, chief scientist for U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command (AMC).
Despite a recent report by the U.S. Defense Department’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) questioning the development and capabilities of the Boeing P-8 Poseidon, the U.S. Navy says the aircraft is doing well on deployment and contends it has already addressed issues raised in the report.
The guided-missile destroyer DDG-75 USS Donald Cook is being prepped this month for a homeport shift to Rota, Spain, from Norfolk, Va., as part of the U.S. commitment to support the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), a NATO defense initiative aimed at protecting Europe and Israel from potential ballistic missile threats. The ship will play a very important role in deterring potential enemies and defending U.S. allies from ballistic missile threats, says M. Elaine Bunn, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is likely to be 13 months late in becoming operational with the U.S. Marine Corps, which had planned to be the first customer to put the aircraft into service, according to a Pentagon test report. The immediate cause of the delay is that testing of the necessary software is running late — a problem that is also likely to delay initial operational capability (IOC) for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and international customers. The current IOC dates were set last May.
Commercialization remains the biggest challenge to achieving the FAA’s target of 1 billion gal. of renewable aviation fuel use by 2018, says Administrator Michael Huerta. “The challenge we face is scaling up production. We need government and industry to continue to work together on this,” he told the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative general meeting in Washington Jan. 28.
BRUSSELS — Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stephane Israel praised the European Commission for its loyalty in lofting EU satellites with the Evry, France-based launch consortium, but said the company must lower costs immediately to compete with new entrants to the market that are backed by government financing.
HONOLULU, Hawaii — The U.S. Navy is continuing to transition its helicopter squadrons to the advanced MH-60 aircraft. With the transition, the service will replace its aging SH-60F and HH-60H helicopters with MH-60R Seahawk and MH-60S Knighthawk models, armed with a vast array of upgraded sensors and equipment meant to provide the service with greater capability to perform missions such as antisubmarine warfare and countermine operations.
BRUSSELS — Airbus Helicopters says issues with its EC225 and EC135 helicopters have “strengthened its determination in the area of safety.” The grounding of the EC225 from October 2012 to July 2013, followed by the November crash of an EC135T2 in Glasgow, Scotland, had a broad effect on public perception, but also caused new aircraft programs to be delayed and sales early in the year to slump. That prompted CEO Guillaume Faury to implement an action plan which he says has helped to recover sales and deliveries.
Rockwell Collins has topped Wall Street analysts’ earnings expectations for the fourth quarter of 2013. Like some other mid-tier aerospace and defense providers, Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Rockwell last year said it planned as if the full effect of the 2011 Budget Control Act’s annual sequestration cuts to federal spending would occur — unlike most prime Pentagon contractors that did not appear as quick to reflect sequestration’s deepest effects in their business forecasts.
EX-IM BANK: Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA) is asking the Senate Banking Committee to help Congress tighten oversight of the U.S. Export-Import Bank – particularly eliminating financing for wide-body aircraft to foreign carriers. In a Jan. 28 letter to committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and ranking Republican Mike Crapo (Idaho), ALPA claims that the export credit agency has not followed congressional intent in regard to assessing adverse effects to U.S. businesses from its loans.
Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other military technologies associated with the U.S. “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region could be relative winners in the Obama administration’s fiscal 2015 budget request and long-term spending blueprint, according to congressional testimony by Pentagon officials Jan. 28.
Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, is concerned about “the growing sophistication and the capabilities of today’s weapon systems and our changing relative dominance with those systems.” He again cites, by example, the recent Chinese hypersonic missile tests, saying, “This is just one of many highly technical militarized systems that – whether the Chinese are developing them or we’re developing them or Europeans are developing – that will continue to complicate the security environment with high-tech technology and the systems.”
The human exploration of Mars by the 2030s is within reach if global space powers — supported by sustained budgets and political backing — cooperate to overcome the technical hurdles, according to Explore Mars, Inc. The four-year-old Massachusetts nonprofit advocates focused use of the International Space Station (ISS), the possible introduction of a modest, crewed cis-lunar outpost in the 2020s and carefully paced robotic missions to achieve the goal.
HOUSTON — Spacewalking cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy met with mixed results Jan. 27 during a second attempt to install a pair of Canadian commercial Earth imaging cameras outside the International Space Station (ISS). The task outside the Russian segment of the outpost proved so troublesome during a late-December attempt that the two men were forced to retrieve the just-installed imagers for internal troubleshooting during a frustrating excursion that grew to a Russian record 8 hr., 7 min.
As the U.S. Navy plans for a growing share of rotorcraft in its aviation fleet, the service is amending its curriculum to provide the only formal, undergraduate-level, rotary wing engineering program in the country. “In an effort to better support the technology development, flight test and acquisition intellectual needs required to staff the change, we made a conscious decision to provide a focused option for our undergraduate aerospace majors,” Capt. Kenneth Ham, chairman of the Naval Academy Aerospace Engineering department, tells Aviation Week.
INCREASINGLY MEXICAN: Bombardier Aerospace (BA) has a goal to boost local suppliers. According to investment advisors at National Bank Financial, about 30% of the supply of BA’s components comes from Mexican sources, with the goal over the next five years to reach 70%. That means going from eight local suppliers now to 12-15. “If BA is able to achieve this level of local content, the cost savings will become much more meaningful,” the advisors say. The Canadian-based OEM is also relying more on Mexican locals for management.
