ARLINGTON, Va. — Boeing is looking for both additional U.S. purchases of F/A/-18E/Fs and export campaigns to sustain that production line and the F-15 beyond their currently expected lives. The current F/A-18E/F multiyear program with the U.S. Navy runs until around 2015, but Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS), sees the possibility of additional sales of the electronic-attack EA-18G version to the Pentagon to extend production. Whether there is enough demand for a fourth multiyear contract is unclear, he notes.
NAVY ERAPSCO, Columbia City, Ind., is being awarded a $25,392,401 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 4,628 AN/SSQ-125 sonobuoys. The work will be performed in DeLeon Springs, Fla. (53%), and Columbia City, Ind. (47%), and is expected to be completed in June 2014. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to the FAR 6.302-1. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. (N00421-12-C-0049).
OSPREY OVERSEAS: Although Bell-Boeing and the U.S. Marine Corps are stepping up efforts to secure an export order for the V-22 tiltrotor, such a sale is still some time off, says Mark Kronenberg, vice president for international business development at Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “We are just starting to develop the market,” he tells reporters near Washington. Israel and Japan are seen as presenting “near-term” opportunities, he says, with satisfying Canada’s search-and-rescue requirement also a possibility.
The U.S. Navy needs to update the requirements for its proposed Organic Airborne and Surface Influence Sweep (Oasis) program and should better integrate helicopter testing operations with the system, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says. “The Navy did not update capability requirements in the draft capability production document (CPD) after a contractor’s analysis showed Oasis would not work after sustaining a shock wave of 65 percent of the shock capability requirement,” the IG says in its June 13 report.
In Moscow, a third round of talks continues this week, but serious differences still divide Iran from six world powers over putting an end to Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran’s representatives have been told to stop uranium enrichment or face an end to negotiations, heavier sanctions and the likelihood of kinetic bombing of key military facilities.
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Air Force’s second X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-2) has landed after 469 days in space, more than double the time clocked by the OTV-1. As with the first OTV flight, the Air Force remains secretive about the mission, saying only that the Boeing-built X-37B conducted “on-orbit experiments.” In a short statement, it says the vehicle provides “return capability” that allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk faced by other programs.
When the Pentagon and Obama administration released the nation’s new global defense posture earlier this year — with the “Pacific Pivot” refocus — one area of the world that seemed to get a little less attention was the African continent, especially in light of the recently created Africa Command (Africom). But, U.S. military officials say, Africom’s assets are expected to produce a lot of bang for the buck.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Virgin Galactic are working under U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) contracts to design air-launch systems that can orbit sub-100-lb. payloads for $1 million, including range costs. “Previous attempts at air launch did not focus enough on the rocket side,” says Mitchell Burnside Clapp, Darpa’s Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (Alasa) program manager. “They over-invested in an aircraft that could only do one thing—support the launch.”
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy is sponsoring the development of technology that is designed to overcome size and weight limitations to placing radar detectors on small UAVs. The technology is contained in a multi-mode Analog-to-Information based Radar Warning Receiver (A21RWR), a device is being developed through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding by SA Photonics of Los Gatos, Calif.
The first Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) ship scheduled to shift homeport to Naval Station Mayport, Fla., will arrive in the last quarter of 2013, earlier than Navy officials had indicated. U.S. Navy Secretary Navy Ray Mabus said June 15 that the USS New York, USS Iwo Jima and USS Fort McHenry will move to Mayport from Norfolk, Va. The USS New York will be the first to change homeport, followed by the Iwo Jima and Fort McHenry in 2014. Mabus previously had announced the ARG would arrive no later than 2015.
SKY DRAGON: China is starting to globally market a new medium-range, surface-to-air missile system called Sky Dragon. China North Industries Corp. claims an engagement range of 3-50 km (2-31 mi.), with a maximum engagement altitude of 20 km. The target set includes fighters, helicopters, unmanned aircraft and cruise missiles. A system comprises 3-6 launchers with four missiles each, an Ibis150 3D radar providing greater than 130-km detection range and a battle command system. The company says 12 missiles can be controlled at the same time.
NEW DELHI — India is likely to start receiving MBDA’s MICA missile beginning in 2015, a senior defense ministry official says. “We are hoping that MBDA will expedite its delivery of the MICA missiles to mount on the 51 Mirage 2000H aircraft that are being upgraded by France’s Thales and Dassault jointly with Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics,” the official says.
LONDON — The Norwegian government has kicked off the purchase of its F-35A Joint Strike Fighters after years of discussions and a recent budget move to adjust procurement plans. The deal also puts the Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile (JSM) on a path to integration on the fighter, which Norway sees as key to achieving its industrial goals.
Consolidation in the aerospace and defense supply chain can be big news when it involves publicly traded companies as prominent as United Technologies and Goodrich.
