In the U.S., lawmakers take great delight in reminding the executive branch of the government that Congress can have the final word on most issues, starting with appropriations, hence the old saw “The president proposes, Congress disposes.” Indeed, presidents’ budget requests are routinely pronounced dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.
Jacques Desclaux (see photo) has been named chairman/CEO of PowerJet of Paris, succeeding Jean-Paul Ebanga, who joined CFM International. Desclaux was executive vice president of Europrop International.
Washington is pressuring partners in Japan—who are notoriously methodical customers—to commit to a production plan for the Raytheon-led SM-3 Block IIA ballistic missile killer to meet ambitious fielding deadlines in 2018. The Missile Defense Agency’s director, Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, writes to Nobushige Takamizawa, policy chief in Japan’s defense ministry, that if partners are unable to come to an agreement, the U.S. must make plans to produce the interceptors stateside. Under the roughly $2 billion program, Japan and the U.S.
Russ Claughton (see photo) has been selected to lead the Education Office at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center , Edwards, Calif. He was campus administrator at the Northeast Independent School District in San Antonio, where he directed and evaluated student achievement and teacher performance. HONORS & ELECTIONS
John Young, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief from 2007-09, worries that the government and defense industry’s atrocious track record on program execution could stifle innovation at the far reaches of the supply chain. “Small firms do not have the resources to weather program start delays and source selection slips,” he says (see p. 24). Fred Lisy knows exactly what Young is talking about.
Is the sum of the individual pieces worth more than the whole? The answer to that question led to a recent decision by ITT Corp. to split into three stand-alone companies: defense, industrial products and water technologies. The breakup of the 90-year-old conglomerate will unlock value for its shareholders, explains CEO Steven Loranger.
As European engineers explore ways to improve natural laminar flow on future aircraft to achieve greater fuel-burn efficiency, Dassault has modified a Falcon 7X business jet to extend understanding of the phenomenon. Studying laminar flow is a key element of Europe’s Clean Sky program. Within the next couple of years, the program’s Smart Fixed-Wing Aircraft initiative aims to flight-test an Airbus A340 with a wing extension designed for laminarity.
Boeing and EADS have each submitted proposals for the U.S. Air Force’s latest attempt to buy a KC-135 refueling tanker replacement. USAF plans to buy 179 tankers through the KC-X program, which is estimated to be worth $35 billion. The service has not said when a winner will be announced.
Niklas Prager (see photo) has switched roles at Lagga, Sweden-based Envirotainer , moving from chairman to CEO. He succeeds Thomas Persson, who will remain as senior adviser. Prager has a long background in the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries, including executive positions at MSD and Pfizer.
France’s government accounting office has raised a red flag over a vast French plan to sell off assets and outsource services to help compensate for a drop in military procurement spending, notably a proposal to sell and lease back the country’s Syracuse 3 secure satellite communications system. The satellites have about 10% of unused capacity, according to French finance ministry figures. Launched in 2005-06 with a design life of 12 years, they are expected to fetch €400 million ($548 million).
Since the advent of powered flight, aircraft designers have sought to escape the bondage of heavy rigid structures by moving to lighter, bird-like adaptive shaping and sensing technology.
A small aircraft accident with a happy outcome—all onboard survived with minor injuries—is, years later, evolving into something of an international cause celebre with ominous overtones.
Mark Verdesco has been promoted to director of pre-owned aircraft sales by Dassault Falcon , succeeding Skip Flint, who retired in December. Verdesco has held a variety of positions at Dassault, including a stint as technical marketing analyst.
USAF Gen. Kevin P. Chilton has been selected by the board of advisers of the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement to receive the 25th National Space Trophy. Chilton, commander of U.S. Strategic Command and a former astronaut, is being recognized for his leadership in civilian and military space programs.
The issue of running out of missiles against China is not a new one for jet fighters and surface escort ships. In “Numbers Matter” (AW&ST Jan. 3, p. 21), Chinese air forces certainly provide a “target-rich environment,” but as one sage points out, U.S. Gen. George Custer was said to have the same type of environment prior to his last stand. The article suggests use of high-persistent drones, but they better be stealthy to survive. Just consider a squadron of stealthy J-20s with a mass of conventional fighters.
Brian Gillman has been tapped to become senior vice president/general counsel/corporate secretary for Global Aviation Holdings . He held similar titles at Mesa Air Group and Vanguard Airlines.
The Jan. 24/31 issue, on page 58, the statement that the Delta IV Heavy is the largest launcher since the Saturn V referred to expendable launch vehicles.
Deirdre Clemmons has been promoted to vice president of meetings, conventions and education by Airports Council International-North America . Previously, she directed conferences for the National Defense Industrial Association.
Debra Higgins has become vice president of charter sales for Arcadia Aviation . Her career includes stints as vice president of sales for Capital Jet and director of charter sales at Private Jet Charters in Windsor Locks, Conn.
Graham Warwick (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
Details of the revamped F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program are emerging and showing that, despite more than nine years of work, almost six years of challenging development and testing still lie ahead for the Lockheed Martin-led project.
The practice of screening people and baggage is about to take a leap forward after slowly evolving over more than four decades. Future checkpoints will harness channels of personal data to differentiate between passengers and assign to them—depending on how they score on a screener’s confidence scale—varying levels of technological screening. The physical configuration of checkpoints is likely to change as best practices of processing people come into play.
India’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program, currently the world’s biggest international fighter competition, will hinge on a series of national objectives—only one of them being the air force’s need to maintain squadron numbers.
Denise Millard (see photo) has been named vice president of international business development for L-3 Aviation Products . She was vice president of the Customer Group for L-3 company ACSS and had been director of marketing for Thales’s Avionics Regional and Business Aircraft Division.
At least $50 billion will be committed over the next five years to provide the Indian army, navy, air force and coast guard with military hardware, force multipliers and advanced systems of almost every kind. Fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft, guided weapons and space asset requirements, spread across the four services and the paramilitary forces, will make India one of the heaviest buyers of military equipment in the world this decade.
Navy Vice Adm. David Venlet, the U.S. program director for the $380 billion Joint Strike Fighter, is due to make his public debut in the role Feb. 15, after nearly a year of working behind the scenes to revamp the troubled Lockheed Martin program. The company has taken a beating from Defense Secretary Robert Gates since last year, when more problems came to light in the testing program (see p. 25). Venlet’s task will be challenging.
