UK to privatize aircrew training
Filed under: England, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, VT Group, training
Bump - Further details on the contract the UK signed with Ascent, the joint venture of Lockheed and VT, to conduct aviation training have come out. See this article for some of the new details. It is a 25 year contract with the contractor that will be implemented incrementally as the current training program completes.
According to this short report, the UK is ready to transition all of its pilot training to a private contractor. This is for the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army rotary wing pilots. If this is true it represents a major change in how training has been done in the past. One would have to assume that there are major cost savings in this transition away from maintaining their own aircraft and training staff. Beyond saying that Lockheed Martina and VT will carry out the contract no details were given as to how it would be done.
Lockheed wins first GPS III contract
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Lockheed Martin, Satellites, U.S. Air Force, space
Lockheed was awarded the GPS III contract. See a story here. The contract is for two satellites with 10 options. It is worth $1.46 B. Boeing loses another major contract. Boeing is building some GPS II satellites with the first planned for launch this year. Lockheed has also built GPS satellites in the past.
6 proposals for India’s new fighter
Filed under: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, MiG, Military Aviation, SAAB, production program
Six companies submitted bids for India’s new fighter acquisition. See a story here. As expected both Boeing and Lockheed submitted bids as well as MiG, SAAB, Aerospatiale and the Eurofighter Typhoon. This goal is to narrow the competition to two or three of the proposals and then choose a winner with first aircraft due in 2011. This means that SAAB has bid on this and the Norwegian buy in less then a week.
Connecticut politicians lobby for Sikorsky for VH-71 contract
Filed under: Contract Awards, Federal Budget Process, Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky, U.S. Navy, commercial aviation, development program
A group of 11 Congressman, mainly from Connecticut, wrote a letter to DoD asking for the Lockheed contract be canceled and put out for re-bid. See Hartford Courant for more. The hope is that Sikorsky will win the recompete. Read more





