AIR FORCE Telephonics Corp. Farmingdale, N.Y. (FA8730-12-C-0007), is being awarded a $60,082,968 firm-fixed-price contract award for the production of 19 UPX-40s to include hardware installation kits, installation support, manufacturing and sustainment support. The location of the performance is Huntington, N.Y. The work is expected to be completed by Oct. 19, 2018. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/HBSK, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
TOO CONFIDENT: Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) believe aerospace and defense executives may be “overconfident” in the information security practices at their respective organizations, given the trends of information security budget slashing, rising security incidents and accelerating technology development. The survey of more than 200 executives found that “72% of respondents are confident that they have instilled effective security behaviors into their organization’s culture, yet most do not have a process in place to handle third-party breaches,” PwC says.
Click here to view the pdf F-22 Spending Profile Fiscal 2008-2017 ($ in thousands) F-22 Spending Profile Fiscal 2008-2017 ($ in thousands) Type of Expense Sum of $Ks FY08 Sum of $Ks FY09 Sum of $Ks FY1
With Congress gone and no deal to prevent a nearly $1 trillion across-the-board budget cut from taking effect next January, a group of senators is laying the groundwork for proposals to delay the penalty known as sequestration.
A report destined for the German parliament’s economics committee lists numerous concerns about the proposed merger of EADS and BAE Systems. The Ministry of Economics report says the proposed golden shares, which are supposed to give governments veto rights on key strategy questions, are not absolutely certain to provide the kind of protection to state interests that EADS and BAE Systems claim. The report also questions the legality of issuing golden shares to three governments under current European law.
It is not certain that the U.S. national airspace system (NAS) will be ready to accommodate unmanned aircraft by the deadline set by Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. In February, Congress set a series of deadlines to accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the NAS. In a recent report, GAO says FAA “has missed one deadline and could miss others.”
The U.S. Coast Guard needs to get a better handle on its major development and spending plans, a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. “The planned cost and schedule of the Coast Guard’s portfolio of major acquisitions is unknown because of outdated acquisition program baselines and uncertainty surrounding affordability,” says the Sept. 20 report.
Thanks to early supervision and a tight working relationship between the U.S. Navy and contractor General Dynamics NASSCO, the service’s Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) vessel is set for manufacturing, the service says. “The Navy worked very closely with General Dynamics NASSCO to identify cost savings early in the MLP design work while pursuing a concurrent design and production engineering approach,” the Navy says in a recent blog.
No one ever accused South Korea's Agency for Defense Development of lacking ambition. But as it pushes ahead with its effort to indigenously develop a stealth fighter, the agency faces renewed accusations of a lack of realism, and it is simply being overlooked when it comes to funding.
As Tom Enders tells employees in a letter, he is convinced that the planned merger of EADS and BAE Systems offers a “singular chance.” But there is a problem: Investors are notably uninspired and European governments lukewarm. There is a real possibility that the deal may still fall through.
Using cockpit simulators for a Brazilian air force F-5 in Porto Alegre and an F/A-18E/F at its military aircraft headquarters in St. Louis, Boeing has demonstrated how it can link a network of simulators across distances as great as 5,000 mi. Boeing has been strengthening its manufacturing and technology ties with Brazil for several years in a number of areas, but nowhere more so than in its drive to demonstrate advanced systems capabilities and win the Brazilian air force's F-2X fighter competition.
NEW DELHI — India successfully conducted a development test of its nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface Agni-IV missile on Sept. 19 from a military base in the eastern state of Odisha. The missile will be introduced into service next year after undertaking one more developmental trial, a defense ministry official says.
NEW DELHI — The Indian air force (IAF) aims to spend $37 billion over the next 10 years to step up its modernization program, according to a defense official. “We are on [a] path of modernizing our assets,” says Air Marshal R.K. Sharma, IAF’s deputy chief. “In the last five-year plan [2007-12], IAF procurements were around $27 billion. We envisage [purchasing] assets worth more than $37 billion over the next two plan periods [by 2022].”
If budget sequestration hits, the U.S. Defense Department will protect wartime funding first, driving higher cuts to the base budgets. And next, more than 2,000 account lines and their contracts will have to be scrutinized, according to Pentagon officials. It’s not something the Pentagon wants to do, the department comptroller and four generals told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Sept. 20. They want to avoid it, not plan for it.
With fuel consumption and thermal management concerns increasing as power demands on combat aircraft escalate, the Pentagon is seeking industry input on a national plan for research to address the energy, power and thermal needs of military platforms. A centerpiece of the Energy Optimized Aircraft (EOA) national plan will be the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Integrated Vehicle Energy Technology (Invent) program already under way to develop adaptive smart aircraft power systems.
The secret to making sure the U.S. Navy’s restarted VXX presidential helicopter replacement effort is not canceled like its previous iteration will be setting a ceiling on requirements early, says Scott Winship, vice president of advanced programs for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. Northrop is partnered with AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, to compete for the proposed Marine One presidential helicopter. The companies will offer a U.S.-built variant of AgustaWestland’s 101.
