Improving Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Through Innovation

December 31, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: BNET, Syndicated Industry News

When an aircraft is in maintenance or overhaul it is not available to fly combat missions or generate revenue for its user. Realization...

Tags: BNET Government Industry, combat missions, fly, realization

Air National Guard To Have Role With KC-X

October 19, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Syndicated Industry News

Since 9/11 the U.S. military has moved to integrate even more their National Guard and Reserve Forces. They have been called up at high rates and have received more and upgraded equipment. Currently the Air National Guard of various states like Alabama fly KC-135 tankers. If the full fleet of KC-X aircraft are built then some of the states will receive these new tankers. Recently it was announced that the Air National Guard will provide participation on the KC-X source selection. This is most likely to help make sure that any specific requirements of the Air Guard are considered and is not common with programs of this size.

Tags: Air National Guard, fleet, fly, KC-135, participation, source selection, tankers

India Releases Helicopter Requests For Proposals

May 27, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Business Line, Companies, Countries, Events, FMS, India, Military Aviation, Proposal, production program

India has released this week two separate Requests for Proposals (RFP) for new helicopters. The first one is to purchase twenty-two advanced attack helicopters. The second for fifteen heavy lift aircraft. India faces many of the same problems that the Allied forces in Afghanistan do because of the high, hot environments that aircraft must fly in.

The country had released a RFP last year for attack helicopters but withdrew after receiving non-responsive bids. India has looked at major upgrades to its armed forces by broadening the base of whom they buy from. Rather then relying primarily on Russian or British equipment Israel and the United States have begun to make inroads into the market. India also had invested heavily in domestic development and production but to get more technology faster has started buying overseas in greater amounts.

With the new proposals Boeing is considering a bid for each. They make the AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook both heavily used in Afghanistan by the U.S. and Allies. Boeing is also looking at taking major hits in the Obama budget and will try to counter that with sales overseas.

Tags: afghanistan, ah 64 apache, allied forces, allies, armed forces, attack helicopters, Boeing, budget, CH-47, environments, fly, heavy lift, inroads, Israel, market india, requests for proposals, United States

Raytheon Get Civil Air Traffic Control Contract

March 13, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Events, Raytheon, Services, commercial aviation, development program

The Department of Transportation awarded Raytheon a contract to develop a system to track airline flights in flight. The AP reports that the goal of this system is to better utilize available air space as more and more aircraft fly commercially. No value for the contract was given. Raytheon has been making air traffic control radars for military and civil applications for years and this work seems to be an extension of that. The U.S. government has been investing over the last several years in new systems for installation at airfields for air traffic control. One of the goals of this new contract is to integrate a variety of existing surveillance and tracking systems. The amount of aircraft flying in the U.S. air space has grown considerably over the last few decades and some busier airports have issues with fitting in all of the planned flights.

Tags: air space, air traffic control, airfields, airline flights, airports, ap reports, civil applications, decades, department of transportation, fly, last several years, new contract, radars, Raytheon, Surveillance, u s air

Congressional Research Service Recommends Holding Down Military Pay

February 9, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comments Off
Filed under: Careers, Commentary, Congress, Department of Defense, Events, Federal Budget Process, Services

The CRS did a review of the future budget plans for the Pentagon and came to the conclusion they were underfunded. The Federal Times writes that one aspect of this review was a recommendation to reduce future military pay raises. Personnel costs are a large part of the defense budget and the operations over the last seven years have only increased those. The military and Congress have also moved to increase pay and benefits due to the stress military personnel have been under. They recommend reducing future raises and targeting special pay and bonuses. To be honest any attempt that looks like the military were being short changed on pay and benefits would not fly with the Congress, or the American people for that matter.

Tags: budget plans, conclusion, Congress, crs, defense budget, fly, military pay, military personnel, pentagon, personnel costs, seven years

Northrop Grumman Wins Global Hawk Sustainment Contract

January 29, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: California, Contract Awards, Events, ISR, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Air Force

MSNBC reports that the U.S. Air Force gave Northrop Grumman a contract to provide support for the growing Global Hawk strategic UAV fleet. Northrop Grumman manufactures the long range intelligence surveillance aircraft. The contract is valued at over $275 million and will primarily be carried out at Beale AFB in California. Unlike the more tactical Predator and Reaper UAV the Global Hawk is a large aircraft that can fly at high altitudes and long ranges to collect different types of intelligence to support combat operations. The Global Hawk in many ways has replaced the U-2 type reconnaissance aircraft.

Tags: beale afb, combat operations, fleet, fly, Global Hawk, grumman, hawk, high altitudes, intelligence surveillance, long ranges, msnbc, msnbc reports, northrop grumman, Northrop Grumman Corp., Predator, reaper uav, reconnaissance aircraft, surveillance aircraft, u s air, u s air force

US announces Israeli JSF buy

September 30, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Department of Defense, FMS, Israel, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, production program

The US Department of Defense announced that Israel has agreed to buy 25 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) and support. The contract is worth about $15 B. While eight partner countries will also fly the JSF, Israel becomes the first FMS customer. The JSF will be a short take-off and landing aircraft to replace F-16 and AV-8 aircraft.

See the story at Rueters.com.

Tags: Department of Defense, fly, Israel, joint strike, jsf, landing aircraft, partner countries, reuters, strike fighters, us department of defense

M7 gets KC-135 work

September 8, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, Military Aviation, U.S. Air Force, production program

Because of the ongoing struggle with the KC-45 contract, the KC-135 tanker still has to fly. Boeing is the prime support contractor for an aircraft they originally built 50 years ago. They awarded M7 a subcontract to build spoilers for the aircraft. M7 has been supporting Boeing with parts since 2005. This contracts illustrates how diverse the business is with the big companies paying lots of little companies to make parts at a cheaper price then they could.

The story is at The San Antonio Business Journal site.

Tags: Boeing, Contract Awards, fly, KC-135, prime support contractor, san antonio business, san antonio business journal, struggle

Navy awards target contract

September 2, 2008 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Alliant Techsystems, CEi, Contract Awards, U.S. Navy, development program, training

The Navy uses a variety of targets to test new systems and also to train ship’s crew. Alliant Techsystems and CEi were awarded a contract to build the Multi-Stage Supersonic Target (MSST). This will simulate anti-ship surface-to-surface missiles. The press release says it cruises at sub-sonic speeds, but the name implies that at some point it is going over Mach 1. These kind of missiles are a dangerous threat to ships and they fly at low altitude and their speeds reduce reaction time by the air defense systems.