BOEING has $325.8m U.S. Air Force order for 15,000 Lot 20 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tailkits. Work will be performed at St. Louis, MO, complete by March 29, 2018. BELL-BOEING has $151.3m U.S. Navy contract for development of Navy Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) variant of V-22 Osprey tiltrotor (CMV-22B). AUSTAL USA has $564m U.S. Navy contract for construction of one fiscal 2016 Independence-variant littoral combat ship (LCS 26); LOCKHEED MARTIN also has $564m contract for one fiscal 2016 Freedom-variant littoral combat ship (LCS 25).
The U.S. Defense Department’s portfolio of major defense acquisitions increased from 78 to 79 over the past year, while the total planned investment in those programs decreased from $1.45 trillion to $1.44 trillion, according to the latest annual review by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “This estimate is in line with a trend seen since 2010 of decreases in the portfolio’s total acquisition cost,” GAO says. “The average time to deliver initial capability to the warfighter also increased by 2.4 months.”
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. For a complete list of Aviation Week Network’s upcoming events, and to register, visit www.aviationweek.com/events (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 1-15—Human & Space Conference, The National Aerospace Educational Center of Youth of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk Ukraine. For more information go to www.spaceagenda.com/events/detail/2016-04-01_human-space
Airbus Defense and Space says it is working to resolve manufacturing faults affecting propeller gear boxes inside the TP400-D6 engines that power the A400M airlifter.
The U.S. Navy’s recent Ice Exercise 2016 showcased projects sponsored by the Office of Naval Research that included the use of aerial and space ice-measuring radar systems.
Blue Origin achieved a milestone in reusable spacecraft April 2, launching and recovering a New Shepard suborbital spacecraft for the third time in a row after relatively minor refurbishment.
Plans to put U.S. government astronauts on commercial crew vehicles are raising difficulties in preparing the vehicles for flight, according to an experienced NASA astronaut who also served as an executive at SpaceX.
To be launched in April, the joint pilot project will be an open competition involving the crowdsourced design of a UAV configuration offering improved safety in civil applications, particularly cargo transport.
It is a spacecraft so huge that it can only be tested in pieces, a flagship astronomy mission so complex and cutting-edge that some of its subsystems have never flown in space.
Following a pat on the back to NASA for continued overall improvements in the cost and schedule performance of its major programs, the U.S. General Accountability Office warned the favorable five-year trend could reverse.
The concept is to launch groups of UAVs from large bomber or transport aircraft, or smaller fixed-wing platforms. These “gremlins” would operate in a distributed and cooperative way, Darpa says.
The U.S. Navy continues to carve away at the proposed price for its Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), although some later testing and upgrades could boost the cost, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
DASSAULT AVIATION signed €6.7b ($7.6b) contract with Qatar for 24 Rafale fighter jets. FINNISH DEFENSE MINISTRY plans to release Request for Information for HX fighter program to the governments of the U.K., France, Sweden and the U.S. by April 22. SWISS DEFENSE MINISTRY suspended DSA air defense project pending an expert review of the country’s air defense requirements. COLOMBIAN AIR FORCE accepted 7th Bell Helicopter Huey II Kit in ongoing upgrade program for service’s UH-1Hs. More than 270 Huey II aircraft have been built worldwide.
Boeing confirms more than 4,000 jobs will be cut across the company’s Commercial Airplanes group by midyear as part of cost-reduction efforts announced in February. The move “involves a combination of non-labor cost savings, supply chain savings, and reduced staffing levels. While there is no employment reduction target, the more we can control costs as a whole, the less impact there will be to employment,” the company says.
