U.S. aviation, aerospace and defense contractors are gearing up for a policy battle that hits close to home, as an effort to rein in federal contractor salary reimbursements is about to see a major boost. That is because the White House is asking Congress, through defense authorization committee hearings in June, to lower and extend a cap on the amount of contractor salaries that can be reimbursed by the government.
STEEP HILLS: Dozens of analysts from think tanks in Washington have issued a call for lawmakers to empower another round of military base realignment and closures, as well as significant changes to military pay and benefits, among other proposals to better spend precious federal dollars. But the analysts know they have a steep hill to climb inside the Capitol, as illustrated by Rep. Jim Cooper (Tenn.), a so-called Blue Dog Democrat.
ARLINGTON, Va. — There are no apparent delays that could hold up the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Aerial Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) program, says Frank Kendall, defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics. “I see no reason why that can’t go forward soon,” Kendall said June 3 during a luncheon keynote speech at the 2013 Navy Opportunity Forum.
NEW DELHI — India is in the final stages of developing a guided bomb and is likely to deploy the indigenously made kit on its fighter aircraft by the end of 2014. Developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), the “glide bombs” are designed to improve the accuracy of air-to-ground bombing by the Indian air force (IAF). Several tests have been performed both through simulation and flight tests over the last few years to reach the required performance levels of precision attacks, Ravi Gupta, DRDO spokesman, tells Aviation Week.
MARSEILLE, France — The French Securite Civile’s aerial firefighting department will evaluate the Air Tractor AT-802 this summer to see if the aircraft could replace the agency’s fleet of Conair-modified Grumman Trackers. Three pilots have been trained to fly the aircraft for this summer’s fire season and the aircraft are due to begin operations later this month, according to Thierry Laurent, the head of aviation bureau at Securite Civile, speaking to Aviation Week in Marseille on June 1.
SINGAPORE — Vietnam has a requirement for long-range maritime patrol aircraft, but it can’t buy the aircraft from the United States unless the U.S. government lifts a restriction banning the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party government.
SINGAPORE — New Zealand’s defense minister, Jonathan Coleman, is starting to question whether his ministry may need to implement further procurement reforms, particularly for large, complex military programs.
A Sikorsky/Boeing team has been selected to build and fly a high-speed rotorcraft under the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi Role technology demonstration (JMR TD) program. The coaxial-rotor compound helicopter demonstrator is planned to fly in 2017 under Phase 1 of the JMR TD. The Army hoped to award contracts for two competing demonstrators, and industry sources say AVX Aircraft also has been selected to negotiate a cost-sharing agreement. Other known bidders were Bell Helicopter, EADS North America and Piasecki Aircraft.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on May 29 told federal agencies to prepare their fiscal 2015 budget requests with three levels of spending in mind, including 5% and 10% cuts from the projections given in April with the 2014 request.
SEOUL — Strategic competition with Japan, China and Russia is at least as strong a motivation behind South Korea’s F-X Phase 3 program for 60 fighters as dealing with the North Korean threat, according to government officials in Seoul.
The U.S. Air Force, by far the largest presumed user of the F-35 fighter, has agreed to declare initial operational capability with a much more limited software and weapons capability that initially planned, according to a report sent to Congress May 31.
DEFENSE/IT SPENDING: Exact numbers are nebulous, but the trends are clear: after peaking in fiscal 2011 and 2012, U.S. contract spending on defense and information technology (IT) will bottom out in fiscal 2014 and 2015, and then increase only 1-2% annually through the rest of the decade, according to consulting company Deltek.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on May 29 told federal agencies to prepare their fiscal 2015 budget requests with three levels of spending in mind, including 5% and 10% cuts from the projection laid down in April with the 2014 request. The budget-crafting guidance represents the first formal recognition of the long-term effects of the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA), whose first round of widespread, automatic sequestration rescissions took effect in March and led to FAA furloughs and the threatened closure of 149 contract towers.
The second day of Boeing's pre-Paris media tour promised a new product, which turned out to have nothing to do with the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike program, but to be a V-22-transportable vehicle called the Phantom Badger. On the last day we saw the International Multi-Intelligence Operational Laboratory Environment (I-Mole). Our final briefing was on the KC-46, so Boeing's “tanker toads” neatly completed the “Wind In The Willows” trifecta for the week.
A rotorcraft industry once characterized by rugged individuals flying simple machines is seeing an influx of technology not witnessed since the Vietnam War. Introduced at the top end of the market, in larger helicopters for demanding offshore oil-and-gas and search-and-rescue operators, new technologies are spreading down the size range as costs and weights fall so more customers can see the safety, performance and economic benefits.
A robotic albatross gliding at 200 mph is a dramatic demonstration of how wind power can be harnessed. But it is just one of several projects showing how unmanned aircraft can use air currents, from thermals and ridge lift to wind shear and even turbulence, to increase their endurance from hours to days.
John C. Bierwirth, who led the Grumman Corp. in the 1970s and '80s through the development of the U.S. Navy's F-14 fighter and other military aircraft, NASA space shuttle and space station work, and various diversification efforts, died May 26 in a hospice on Long Island, N.Y., of congestive heart failure. He was 89.
British and French industry partners are hailing a research program that intends to drive new technology into European missile development and production.
Michael Fabey (Singapore), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
The U.S. Navy's amphibious assault ships will have to undergo flight-deck renovations before the world's most sophisticated fighter, the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, can be welcomed aboard. Five years after the first flight of the F-35B, significant work will need to be done on 50,000-ton ships to accommodate the intense heat of the fighter's exhaust.
The ability to deliver the first shot and then put distance between you and your adversary is a key survival tactic in beyond-visual-range air-to-air combat.
