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The U.S. plan for its European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) to ballistic missile defense (BMD) took another step closer to proving its viability with a second successful flight intercept test this week. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and crewmembers of the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie conducted the Aegis flight test on June 26. The test is a solid win for the program, which has faced questions over development costs and testing issues.
VETO BAIT: Just as it did for the House version of the defense authorization bill, the White House is threatening to veto the defense spending bill for 2013. The Obama administration has a long list of objections to the bill, but its biggest problem is the fact that the House bill exceeds by more than $5 billion spending caps on the Pentagon established last year by the Budget Control Act (BCA). And even though that amount is offset by reductions in other House spending bills, the shift is a no-go for the administration.
Perhaps more than any other service, the U.S. Navy is facing an identity crisis as it tries to find the funds to support the fleet of ships it says it needs in the coming decades just as the Pentagon and Congress are tightening the budget belt. Navy officials and defense analysts disagree about what exactly the Navy needs to focus its investments on as the service looks to build and rebuild its submarine, destroyer, amphibious and aircraft carrier fleets nearly simultaneously.
GRIPEN OFFSETS: Saab is meeting with Swiss industry this week to help define the details of the offset program associated with Switzerland’s planned purchase of 22 Gripen NGs. The offset contract itself is not expected to be signed until 2013 or 2014, according to the Swiss defense armaments agency, armasuisse. But the meetings, taking place in Bern and unfolding through June 29, are designed to help intensify contacts between Saab and potential offset partners. The talks also involve other Gripen NG industrial stakeholders and Swiss companies.
The U.S. Army is evaluating AgustaWestland’s AW139 medium twin-turbine helicopter as the company prepares to propose the smaller AW169 for the service’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement. AgustaWestland North America is the first of five companies expected to provide available helicopters for evaluation in voluntary flight demonstrations as part of the Army’s AAS acquisition strategy.
James Albaugh, the Boeing veteran who has been a management leader in all of the company’s product markets — space, defense and airliners — will retire as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) on Oct. 1. Boeing Chairman and CEO James McNerney has named another company veteran to succeed Albaugh. Executive Vice President Raymond L. Conner joined Boeing 34 years ago as a mechanic and currently heads its global sales operations.
LOS ANGELES — Rolls-Royce confirms it is throwing its hat into the ring for the U.S. Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Technology Development program (AETD), which aims to demonstrate potential fuel saving features for sixth-generation fighters as well as future bombers and other tactical aircraft. Mark Wilson, chief operating officer of Rolls-Royce’s Liberty Works advanced development organization in Indianapolis, says “We did put in a bid for the adaptive engine technology program, and this is currently in source selection with the Air Force.”
A Bagram-based U.S. Army aviation support unit is slated July 2 to host Afghan helicopter mechanics to share aircraft repair methods and safety standards, marking their second visit after kicking off a joint training partnership earlier this month. If and when U.S. Army aviators — and their support teams — leave Afghanistan, Afghan forces will have to fly and maintain helicopters on their own, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade hopes to kick off a collaboration that will lead the Afghans to greater maintenance self-sufficiency.
James Albaugh, a 37-year veteran at Boeing who has been a management leader in all of the company’s product markets—space, defense and airliners—on Oct. 1 will retire as president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). Boeing Chairman and CEO James McNerney has named Raymond Conner, another company veteran, to succeed Albaugh. Conner, who is an executive VP, joined Boeing 34 years ago as a mechanic and currently heads the company’s global sales operations.
LOS ANGELES — Anxious to avoid the problems that bedeviled Boeing’s 787 and other recent development programs, systems supplier Parker Aerospace is funneling extra resources into controlling its supply chain as production ramps up on several key air transport, business jet and engine programs.
FOUL WEATHER: The looming arrival of Tropical Storm Debby has prompted United Launch Alliance and the U.S. Air Force to delay the launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite by 24 hr. The launch of NROL-15 is now set for June 29 at 6:13 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral. The protective Mobile Service Tower will remain around the Delta IV launch vehicle and is scheduled to be moved for launch on June 28.
While the House overwhelmingly overturned the U.S. Air Force’s request to end funding for Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk Block 30, the company’s bid to protect the high-altitude UAV faces a much tougher fight in the Senate. The Air Force wants to place 18 of the Block 30s in storage and says it can save $2.5 billion over several years by continuing to operate the manned U-2 spy aircraft. The House Appropriations Committee rejected that, keeping funding to operate the UAVs and adding funding for an additional three.
With a year or so to go before the closure of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana, the focus is now on how the company will absorb the cost of ending operations there. “The company’s No. 1 risk is the Avondale closure, with closing costs still to be negotiated with the Navy,” Citi says in a recent note to investors. “Until the closure is complete, HII management is unwilling to discuss specific cash deployment plans.”
STEVENAGE, England — Having completed key development flight tests for the Meteor ramjet-powered beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, MBDA is now preparing the final performance statement for customers on the weapon. The move comes as the company is also about to wrap up development of the program and begin first missile deliveries to the U.K. before year’s end; ground-handling test vehicles have already been delivered to the U.K.
U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND L-3 Global Communications Solutions, Victor, N.Y., was awarded a single-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the special operation forces deployable node family of terminals. The contract minimum guarantee is $7,551,735 and maximum ceiling is $500,000,000. The anticipated period of performance is not to exceed five years. The place of performance is Victor, N.Y. U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (H92222-12-D-0020). NAVY
BEIJING — Chinese astronauts who manually docked their spacecraft with an orbital laboratory on June 24 have proven a technology crucial for the nation’s proposed space station program. Astronaut Liu Wang, helped by his two colleagues on board Shenzhou 9, took 7 min. to bring the spacecraft into contact with the laboratory, Tiangong 1, from a range of 400 meters (1,300 ft.). That was 3 min. faster than the performance of the automatic system that Shenzhou 9 had used on June 18 and Shenzhou 8 had used last year in China’s first space docking exercise.
Congress has a number of issues to consider as it ponders the U.S. Coast Guard’s proposed shipbuilding plan for its National Security Cutters, according to the Congressional Research Service. “One potential oversight issue for Congress for FY2013 concerns the absence of funding in the Coast Guard’s fiscal 2013 five-year (fiscal 2013-2017) capital investment plan for the seventh and eighth National Security Cutters,” CRS says in a report released earlier this month.
Commercial remote sensing provider GeoEye says it has no plans to delay the launch of its upcoming GeoEye-2 imagery satellite, despite recent moves by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to cut funding support for the company.
The U.S. Army failed to implement cost-control procedures on a cost-reimbursable service contract with General Dynamics Land Systems for logistic support for the Stryker vehicle family, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.
It’s House appropriators who are leaving the biggest mark on the 2013 Pentagon budget request so far this year, changing more lines than House or Senate authorizers, and plussing programs that authorizers in both chambers left unchanged.
