source navysite.de

November 23, 2011 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: US Navy; issued November 21, 2011)

PASCAGOULA, Miss. --- The future USS San Diego (LPD 22) finished acceptance trials at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., Nov. 17, completing the final major milestone prior to the shipyard delivering the San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ship to the Navy in December.

San Diego is the sixth ship of the class to be presented to the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) for acceptance.

"The ship fully performed as expected, successfully completing all of the required demonstrations in port and at sea with some of the highest scores seen in this class to date," said Rear Adm. David H. Lewis, program executive officer ships. "These trials reflect the hard work the LPD 17 class team has accomplished in order to prepare this capable warship for delivery to the fleet."

During the acceptance trials, HII successfully demonstrated a variety of systems including main propulsion engineering and ship control systems, combat systems, communications systems, damage control, food service and crew support, and the electronic backbone of the ship, the Shipboard Wide Area Network. Among the highlights of the at sea trial portion, San Diego successfully completed a four-hour full power run, self defense detect-to-engage exercises, rapid ballasting and deballasting, steering, quick reversal, and anchoring.

The rapid ballast and deballast demonstration is unique to amphibious ships and consists of rapidly flooding the ship's well deck as if landing craft were to be launched or recovered. The ship is then deballasted to return to the normal steaming draft. In the case of this acceptance trial, the results of the rapid ballast event beat the 15 minute time standard by 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

In addition to the INSURV team, Navy experts from Naval Sea Systems Command, the LPD 17 class program office and the Supervisor of Shipbuilding Gulf Coast participated in the trials. Each individual from these entities contributed to the overall trial readiness through their focus on quality assurance and the execution of the test and evaluation program during the months preceding these trials. The crew of the pre-commissioning unit San Diego also played a key role in preparing their ship for acceptance trials.

San Diego is tentatively scheduled to commission in summer 2012 in her namesake city. This is the fourth ship to be named San Diego and it honors the city's history as one of the major naval seaports for the Pacific Fleet.

LPD 22 will join USS New Orleans (LPD 18) and USS Green Bay (LPD 20) as the third ship of the class to be homeported in San Diego. Three other LPDs, USS San Antonio (LPD 17), USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19), and USS New York (LPD 21) are homeported in Norfolk, Va.

Four other LPDs are currently under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries' facilities on the Gulf Coast. These hulls include Anchorage (LPD 23), Arlington (LPD 24), Somerset (LPD 25), and John P. Murtha (LPD 26).

As one of the Defense Department's largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, special mission and support ships, and special warfare craft. Currently, the majority of shipbuilding programs managed by PEO Ships are benefiting from serial production efficiencies, which are critical to delivering ships on cost and schedule.

source indiandefencereview.com

Nov 22, 2011 ASDNews Source : Bluefin

Quincy, MA - Bluefin Robotics, a leader in the design and manufacturing of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) is being awarded a subcontract from General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems for engineering and manufacturing of the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (SMCM UUV). As a critical part of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Mine Warfare mission package, the SMCM UUV system will provide the fleet mine warfare commander and sailors with enhanced mine-hunting capability and address the Navy's need to reliably detect and identify buried mines in high-clutter environments.

The SMCM UUV system will include two Bluefin-21 UUVs in addition to launch and recovery equipment, a support container, spare parts and support equipment. The UUV will feature Bluefin's modular and flexible vehicle architecture, pressure-tolerant field-swappable subsea batteries, and low-noise propulsion technology. In addition, the vehicle will also include an advanced sonar payload developed by the General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems Team.

"Bluefin is excited to be a part of this industry team led by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems to deliver a much needed war-fighting capability for the MCM mission package," said David P. Kelly, President and CEO of Bluefin Robotics. "We are looking forward to leveraging proven Bluefin technologies demonstrated over the past decade and further advance the vehicle capabilities to fully satisfy the LCS mission requirements."

The subcontract includes an option for the production of up to five low rate initial production systems (ten UUVs) as well as other options. Work will be performed in Quincy, Massachusetts.

22 November 2011 naval-technology.com

Vision Systems International (VSI) has received a contract from Lockheed Martin for two additional development phases for the helmet-mounted display system (HMDS) on the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter aircraft.

VSI president Drew Brugal said the enhanced fifth-generation HMDS capabilities form an integral component of the F-35 programme.

The HMDS will be equipped with new digital night-vision sensors to enhance night-vision capability and to allow the pilot to view sharper images at very low light levels.

The company recently modified and tested the HMDS current magnetic receiver unit (MRU) to enable the pilot to detect seat and aircraft vibration frequencies.

Deliveries will begin in the third quarter of 2013.

November 23rd, 2011 By US Department of Defense – DEFENCE TALK

Undersea forces will become increasingly important to the nation’s defense and in exerting military influence in the future, the commander of Submarine Group 2 said here last week.

Navy Rear Adm. Rick Breckenridge provided his insights after a Nov. 17 visit here from Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who called Groton “the home of our submarine force” and the “submarine capital of the world.”

“It’s the original home of the Nautilus, and it is, from my point of view, one of the very important elements of our national defense that you guys are doing,” Panetta said.

Breckenridge ultimately has operational authority of all attack submarines in the Atlantic region.

“There are three squadrons here in Groton, Conn., and there’s one squadron in Norfolk, Va.,” the admiral said. “There used to be two, but we just consolidated to one squadron of ships in Norfolk, Va.”

Breckenridge also oversees the building of additions to the undersea force and ensures the manning, training and equipping of submarines for availability to U.S. combatant commanders.

Submarines have been critical to national defense in the past and continue to remain relevant in today’s fight, the admiral said.

“If you look at historian records, many will claim that it was the undersea forces that won the war in the Pacific, especially, at least, until we were able to get the surface forces back up and on their feet,” he said, referring to events following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which launched the United States into World War II.

Submarines have been used in operations as recently as Operation Odyssey Dawn, Breckenridge noted. “With the United Nations charter, our forces were sent in to soften up the air defenses of Libya to allow the flow of other forces,” he said.

“This gets back [to the] principle [that if] we don’t have superiority in the air to have our way at the onset of a crisis, we’re going to need somebody who can penetrate the defenses and soften up the adversary so then we can flow those other forces in to establish air dominance,” he said. “So in the onset of that campaign, we, the undersea forces, were called upon to attack land targets in Libya.”

Breckenridge lauded the performance of one of the Navy’s attack submarines during the NATO-led operation.

“The USS Florida was called upon to be one of the shooters in Operation Odyssey Dawn against Libya,” he said. “They launched over 90 Tomahawk cruise missiles with eye-watering, flawless performance. Never before in the history of the United States of America has one ship conducted that much land attack strikes, conventionally, in one short time period. And we did it from undersea.”

In addition to the USS Florida, the USS Providence and USS Scranton, both Submarine Group 2 boats, also participated in the Libyan strike, Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Joint Staff, said March 19.

Breckenridge noted that undersea forces have provided a presence during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he spoke about future challenges due to declining force structure.

“If we pull out of Afghanistan, does that mean I don’t need as many submarines in [U.S. Central Command]?” he asked. “You might say, ‘Yes this is going to be good, even for the undersea forces. … It’s time for us to pull back and send those submarines to other areas they need to go.’

“The reality is, from my viewpoint … [that] as we remove our land forces from that region, the only thing that is going to provide stability in the future from a potential aggressor, like say an Iran, is going to be our maritime forces,” Breckenridge added.

The admiral referred to this concept as “regional maritime denial.”

“The need to have undersea forces, not only remains, but perhaps, increases to provide a counterbalance to make sure no aggressive action is taken in theater as we withdraw from Afghanistan,” he said. “So there’s going to be a greater burden placed on the Navy, at large, and again, from an undersea, asymmetric value perspective, I think there’s going to be a greater demand for undersea forces to provide a counterbalance there.”

photo USAF

November 21, 2011 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: Hawker Beechcraft Corporation; issued November 18, 2011)

WICHITA, Kan. --- Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) issued the following statement today after receiving official notification from the United States Air Force that the Beechcraft AT-6 has been excluded from continuing in the Light Air Support (LAS) bidding process:

"We have been notified by the United States Air Force in a letter that the Beechcraft AT-6 has been excluded from the Light Air Support competition. The letter provides no basis for the exclusion.

“We are both confounded and troubled by this decision, as we have been working closely with the Air Force for two years and, with our partners, have invested more than $100 million preparing to meet the Air Force's specific requirements. Additionally, the AT-6 has been evaluated and proven capable through a multi-year, Congressionally-funded demonstration program led by the Air National Guard.

“We have followed the Air Force's guidance closely and, based on what we have seen, we continue to believe that we submitted the most capable, affordable and sustainable light attack aircraft as measured against the Air Force's Request for Proposal.

“We have requested a debriefing from the Air Force and will be exploring all potential options in the coming days."

Hawker Beechcraft Corporation is a world-leading manufacturer of business, special mission, light attack and trainer aircraft – designing, marketing and supporting aviation products and services for businesses, governments and individuals worldwide. The company's headquarters and major facilities are located in Wichita, Kan. , with operations in Salina, Kan. ; Little Rock, Ark. ; Chester, England , U.K.; and Chihuahua, Mexico . The company leads the industry with a global network of more than 100 factory-owned and authorized service centers.

Photo: Lockheed Martin

Nov 21, 2011 By Graham Warwick - aerospace daily and defense report

Lockheed Martin has passed its 2011 flight-test targets for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with aircraft now flying at a pace that, if maintained, will allow the company to exceed its target for a significantly higher number of flights in 2012.

The test program completed its 875th flight for the year on Nov. 17, passing the full-year target of 872. A total of 6,809 test points were accumulated on those flights, exceeding the year-end target of 6,622, says J.D. McFarlan, Lockheed vice president for F-35 test and verification.

The 2011 target was passed early despite testing being halted twice: once briefly in March after an inflight dual generator failure, and for two weeks in August after a failure of the aircraft’s integrated power package during ground runs.

Flying of some F-35B short-takeoff-and-landing test aircraft has again been halted, this time to replace structural beams in the lift-fan bay that have developed small cracks. The beams support actuators for the upper and lower lift-fan doors.

McFarlan says the actuator supports were identified as “hot spots” during structural testing, and Stovl (short takeofff and vertical landing) aircraft from test jet BF-5 onward have redesigned beams and are not affected.

Aircraft BF-1 has been fitted with the redesigned support beams and is planned to return to flight at NAS Patuxent River, Md., in December. BF-2 will be modified during scheduled down time, he says.

BF-3 has done less Stovl testing and has not yet developed cracks. It will be modified, as will BF-4, which for now is being used for up-and-away flight testing. “BF-3 and -5 are available to do Stovl work, so this is not holding us up,” McFarlan says.

In January, the F-35 test program was replanned and extended by two years to provide additional margin for discoveries and to refly test points. “Flying rates in the new plan were supposed to accommodate such findings, and we are happy with its ability to do so,” he says.

Since flying resumed in mid-August, the F-35 test fleet has been averaging 100 flights a month. “That is slightly higher than the pace we need in 2012,” McFarlan says. Around 1,100 test flights are planned for next year.

Although Lockheed has exceeded its full-year target for test points, they are not quite in the order planned. “We have about 500 more in the CV [F-35C carrier variant] bucket than the plan and about 100 more of CTOL [conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35A] and Stovl to accomplish.”

A major objective of flight testing in 2011 was to deliver data to clear the initial envelope for flight training. “We have done that, and delivered several updates to that envelope,” McFarlan says. Training on the F-35A at Eglin AFB, Fla., has yet to begin.

Joint Deficit Reduction Committee co-chair Sen. Patty Murray and co-chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling announced the panel's failure on Nov. 21, two days before the deadline for a deal. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

21 Nov 2011 By KATE BRANNEN DefenseNwes

Even before the so-called congressional supercommittee announced Nov. 21 that it had failed to identify $1.2 trillion to reduce the federal deficit, defense hawks on Capitol Hill announced their intention to introduce legislation that would roll back the resulting defense cuts.

"I will be introducing legislation in the coming days to prevent cuts that will do catastrophic damage to our men and women in uniform and our national security," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., said in a statement to reporters.

His staff emailed the statement at 3 p.m., two hours before the supercommittee co-chairs announced the panel's failure.

McKeon is not alone. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other members of Congress say they too would work quickly to roll back the automatic spending cuts that would hit the Pentagon particularly hard.

"We are now working on a plan to minimize the impact of the sequester on the Department of Defense and to ensure that any cuts do not leave us with a hollow military," McCain said.

The White House has also said the defense cuts under sequestration go too far.

"We made clear that the cuts in the sequester are not the best approach to achieving the kind of deficit reduction that we need, and that the defense cuts are much deeper than we think are wise," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Nov. 21.

However, with the supercommittee failure being just the latest stalemate on Capitol Hill, many are wondering how a politically polarized Congress is going to agree to legislation that would alter the current law.

The Budget Control Act, signed into law in August, created the special congressional committee made up of six Democrats and six Republicans, three from the House and three from the Senate. The committee was charged with finding $1.2 trillion to reduce the country's debt, either through changing entitlements, cutting spending or raising revenues.

The committee had until Nov. 23 to vote on a plan, but with no plan in sight, supercommittee co-chairs Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, announced the panel's failure.

"After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee's deadline," their statement read.

To push the two political parties toward compromise, the Budget Control Act included a trigger mechanism of automatic spending cuts that would be pulled if the committee failed. Now that the supercommittee has officially failed, the trigger is considered pulled. However, the first sequestration does not happen until Jan. 2, 2013, leaving Congress and the president a year to respond.

"Congress could still act and has plenty of time to act," Carney said during a White House press conference.

Called "sequestration" by budgeteers and the "doomsday mechanism" by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the trigger language essentially said that if the committee could not come up with a $1.2 trillion plan, automatic spending cuts would do it for them. Half of the required cuts would come from budget function 050, or national defense, a category that's about 96 percent DoD funding.

However, a handful of defense-related accounts are exempt, such as veterans programs, and some DoD health care and retirement funds. War-spending bills, such as those used to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, are also exempt.

This provides the Pentagon a bit of a loophole, Todd Harrison, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said. With this exemption, the Defense Department could move things from the base budget into the war budget, which remains well over $100 billion a year, in order to get around the cap, Harrison said.

Senate defense appropriators and authorizers have already begun this practice to a small degree with the 2012 defense bills.

"I think we're likely to see that again in 2013, so that will, in effect, soften the decline in defense spending, if they use that outlet," Harrison said.

The law also gives the president the option to exempt military pay from the spending cuts.

If sequestration is not rolled back, the defense base budget in 2013 would be cut to approximately $472 billion, according to analysis by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

In its 2012 budget request, submitted in February, the Pentagon projected a budget for 2013 of $571 billion. This was long before the Budget Control Act was passed in August and even before the Pentagon received its final funding level for 2011, which was roughly $530 billion.

Last week, Panetta outlined the impact of sequestration in 2013 and beyond, saying the cuts would be devastating for the Defense Department. In a letter to lawmakers, Panetta said he objected to the level of cuts, but also the inflexibility with which they are administered.

The law, as currently written, dictates that sequester cuts must be applied in equal percentages to each "program, project, and activity."

"Such a large cut, applied in this indiscriminate manner, would render most of our ship and construction projects unexecutable - you cannot buy three quarters of a ship or a building - and seriously damage other modernization efforts," Panetta said.

At the very least, it is expected the Pentagon will seek flexibility from Congress in how it administers the sequestration cuts.

In the meantime, these issues promise to dominate a long political campaign season leading up to the 2012 elections.

As the political drama plays out, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Pentagon have to present their budget for 2013 in early February.

OMB has two choices: It can send over a budget in February that assumes the trigger is pulled or it can ignore the trigger and send over a budget that doesn't reflect sequestration and therefore can't be taken entirely seriously, Mackenzie Eaglen, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said.

Either way, "You don't really move the defense bills and you continue the wild ride of the last two years of halting stops and starts of continuing resolutions," she said.

photo Jarienks

November 21, 2011 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.; issued November 18, 2011)

PASCAGOULA, Miss. --- Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that the company's sixth amphibious transport dock, San Diego (LPD 22), successfully completed her U.S. Navy acceptance trial this week. The ship returned to Ingalls Shipbuilding Thursday after a two-day sea trial.

"It's amazing what 25,000 tons of steel can do sailing through the Gulf of Mexico," said Doug Lounsberry, Ingalls Shipbuilding's vice president and program manager, LPD 17 program. "These two days at-sea prove the excellent skill and craftsmanship of an Ingalls shipbuilder. It's teamwork at its finest, and presenting the ship capabilities to the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) provides an opportunity to show off our shipbuilding talents. I am proud of our LPD 22 team and all of the shipbuilders who played a part in this trial's success."

With the INSURV Board observing, Ingalls' test and trials team thoroughly tested the ship's main propulsion, steering, communications suite and deck missions systems. Many tests, including anchor handling, ballasting/de-ballasting the well deck and ventilation systems were performed while at sea.

"The INSURV board had the opportunity to judge the ship's performance, and because of Ingalls/Navy collective efforts, we received very good ratings," said Richard Schenk, Ingalls Shipbuilding's vice president, test and trials. "The expertise displayed by the test and trials and program office team to ensure every exercise and test was achieved within a very short time period was great. We have very devoted folks who diligently prepared San Diego to be ready for these critical sea trials, and they are among the best in the business."

Shipbuilders will spend the next month putting the final touches on LPD 22 before the amphibious transport dock ship delivers in mid-December.

The LPD 17-class ships are a key element of the Navy's ability to project power ashore. Collectively they functionally replace more than 41 ships (the LPD 4, LSD 36, LKA 113 and LST 1179 classes of amphibious ships), providing the Navy and Marine Corps with modern, sea-based platforms that are networked, survivable and built to operate with 21st century platforms, such as the MV-22 Osprey.

Ingalls has built and delivered the first five ships in the class and, including LPD 22, there are five more currently under construction.

The San Antonio-class ships are 684 feet long and 105 feet wide and displace approximately 25,000 tons. Their principal mission is to deploy the combat and support elements of Marine Expeditionary Units and Brigades. The ships can carry up to 800 troops and have the capability of transporting and debarking landing craft air cushion (LCAC) or conventional landing crafts, augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft such as the MV-22. These ships will support amphibious assault, special operations or expeditionary warfare missions through the first half of the 21st century.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Employing nearly 38,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, its primary business divisions are Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding.

Image credit: Rennett Stowe

November 21, 2011 By David Axe - Flashpoints

A decade after the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency flew its first armed Predator drones over Afghanistan, the consensus view is that the U.S. military and intelligence community have achieved a lasting near-monopoly on robotic warfare. The Pentagon and CIA operate the vast majority of the world’s armed Remotely-Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and sponsor most of the cutting-edge research and development for new drones.

But that could change, according to two experts who hold outside views. They say increasingly sophisticated foreign armies – for example the Chinese People’s Liberation Army – could render U.S. drones useless in future high-intensity conflicts.

Today’s Predator and Reaper drones are slow and vulnerable compared to traditional, manned jet fighters. They were designed to operate in undefended airspace against unsophisticated enemies. A determined, high-tech foe could knock them from the sky using ground-based air defenses or aerial fighters – or could jam their control signals. “There isn’t an RPA that can survive in full-scale warfare,” Dr. Robbin Laird, a former government analyst currently working as an independent consultant, told The Diplomat.

The Pentagon shares Laird’s concern, although not his fatalism. The U.S. Navy and Air Force are both working on jet-powered, highly-autonomous unmanned aircraft that could prove more survivable than today’s propeller-driven RPAs.

But could they defeat enemy drones? Dave Kilcullen, an adviser to now-retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus when Petraeus headed the Iraq war effort, told The Diplomat that world powers will soon counter U.S. drones with unmanned aircraft of their own. “We’ve dominated the drone field – expect for Israel – for the last decade. We’ve never really had to deal with an environment where the enemy has drones as well. Within a decade we’re going to be in that environment…it’s going to be our drones versus their drones.”

In predicting an imminent end to U.S. drone dominance, Laird and Kilcullen are definitely in the minority. But with world powers – China, in particular – rapidly developing better air defenses, new jet fighters and unmanned aircraft, their view is worth considering. 

Nov 21, 2011  (SPX) SpaceWar.com

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Over the forecast period, North America is expected to account for a share of 35.6% of the total global expenditure on military rotorcrafts. High demand in the region is primarily driven by the country's modernization plans due to maintenance issues regarding its military helicopter fleet after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Asia and Europe are also expected to account for a significant portion of the total global military rotorcraft market with shares of 30.8% and 18.4% respectively. This will be largely driven by the efforts of countries such as India, China and Russia who are anticipated to modernize their armed forces. The Middle East, Latin America and Africa account for 9.7%, 4.5% and 0.9% respectively of global military helicopter expenditure.

The global military rotorcraft market which comprises attack, multi-mission and rescue, transport, reconnaissance and observation and maritime helicopters, is expected to record growth over the forecast period. This is because significant markets such as the US and Europe are expected to modernize their existing fleets which were either exhausted or destroyed during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 4.17% by 2021.

Governments worldwide are increasingly following a procurement pattern that favors multi-mission and rescue helicopters. A prevalent trend of declining military budgets is being observed across various countries including major defense spenders such as the US, the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy. As a result, countries are increasingly adopting a strategy of acquiring multi-mission and rescue helicopters.

Such helicopters can be used for a variety of purposes such as ground attack, air assault, cargo, surveillance, rescue operations, humanitarian aid and troop transport. Therefore, even though the market for transport helicopters is larger in cumulative terms, the market for multi-role helicopters is expected to grow at a faster rate of 10.2%.

South American countries are expected to modernize their helicopter fleets with countries such as Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia locked in an arms race to establish military supremacy in the region.

Even though Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Peru and Argentina are expected to procure military rotorcrafts, the market is expected to decline marginally by 2021. This is because the modernization programs for major markets in the region such as Brazil and Venezuela are expected to be finalized by 2018.

Recent defense budget cuts in countries such as the US, the world's largest defense spender, have resulted in the cancellation of large scale programs such as the country's contract with Bell Helicopter to build 500 small reconnaissance and attack helicopters.

In 2009, the government also cancelled the contract for VH-71 presidential helicopters owing to overrunning costs. These cuts are not isolated to the US and are expected to adversely affect the demand for military rotorcraft globally.

Strong economic growth, territorial disputes, terrorist threats and modernization programs will create a significant demand for military helicopters in the Asia-Pacific region, which is expected to comprise 30.8% of the total military rotorcraft market by 2021.

The period of war in Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in many countries losing their existing fleet of helicopters either to maintenance issues or attacks from hostile forces. With the conflict on the verge of ending, many countries, such as the US and the UK, are now expected to increase their spending on replacing their fleets.

Global defense cuts, combined with a substantial increase in the cost of developing technologically superior weapons platforms, have encouraged collaboration between governments, services and industries. This has led to an increase in joint development and procurement programs, which are expected to continue over the next ten years.

Similarly, technology agreements between countries manufacturing helicopters have been prevalent for many years and are expected to increase over the forecast period.

photo USAF

Nov 21, 2011 ASDNews by Maj. Stacie N. Shafran / 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force-Iraq Public Affairs - Source : US Air Force

Baghdad - During a press conference Nov. 8 the commander of the Iraqi air force said Iraq's purchase of 18 F-16C Fighting Falcons, for their future air defense, will encourage and strengthen the strategic partnership between the U.S. and Iraq.

In September, through the Foreign Military Sales program, the government of Iraq made its first payment for 18 F-16C Block 52 fighter aircraft. With this F-16 package, Iraq purchased logistical support as well as pilot and maintenance training. When the aircraft are delivered, most likely sometime in late 2014 or 2015, Iraq will have the most advanced multi-role fighter aircraft in the world.

Iraqi air force staff Lt. Gen. Anwer Amin addressed members of the Iraqi air force, Ministry of Defense and U.S. military during the press conference. He stood before an F-16 static display provided by the 125th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, an Oklahoma Air National Guard unit providing top cover in Iraq for U.S. service members. The static display was configured like the F-16s purchased by Iraq and included AIM-9 air-to-air missiles, GBU-12 laser-guided bombs and external fuel tanks.

Amin answered several questions from Iraqi and Pan-Arab media about the aircraft's capabilities and the role it will serve in the country's future defense.

"Our ability here is strong," Amin said. "I'm very happy because I see that our future is very good."

The F-16s, he said, will help provide air sovereignty for Iraq to protect its own territory and deter or counter regional threats.

During the past few years, the Iraqi air force, which celebrated its 80th anniversary this year, has steadily modernized its infrastructure and increased its number of personnel. At the end of 2006, the Iraqi air force had 748 airmen and 28 aircraft. Now, there are more than 6,000 airmen and 72 aircraft, including the T-6 Texan and C-130E Hercules.

During Operation New Dawn, the U.S. Air Force helped advance the Iraqi air force through mentorship, training and advising on everything from support functions to operations.

"Over the past 15 months, I've traveled Iraq visiting our Airmen and witnessed a part of this country's transformation," said Maj. Gen. Russ Handy, who is the most senior Airman on the U.S. Forces-Iraq staff as well the commander of the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force-Iraq and director of the Air Component Coordination Element-Iraq. "I can tell you the Iraqi air force has a bright future. The young Iraqi airmen I've met, talked to and flown with are incredibly motivated. Not only are they talented, but they are fired up about their country in the future."

There are currently six Iraqi F-16 candidates in the U.S. for different phases of pilot training. These students will form the core of Iraq's future F-16 force.

The training is all inclusive and typically starts with English language training, which is the international language of aviation. At present, some are finishing an English language course while others are finishing their initial training in the T-6, a trainer aircraft. One of the pilots is scheduled to begin Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals, a preliminary course to the actual F-16 training program, as early as January.

Nov 21, 2011 ASDNews Source : World Surveillance Group Inc.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--(Marketwire - Nov 17, 2011) - World Surveillance Group Inc. (OTCBB: WSGI), a developer of lighter-than-air unmanned aerial vehicles ("UAVs") and related technologies, announced today that the Argus One UAV, equipped with a newly developed pod bay and integrated propulsion unit, has successfully completed a series of flight tests in preparation for upcoming flight tests and demonstrations at the Oklahoma Training Center - Unmanned Systems in Lawton, Oklahoma and the U.S. Department of Energy Nevada Test Site. The flight tests were conducted under tower control at Easton Airport by WSGI's technical partner Eastcor Engineering ("ECE").

The newly developed pod bay was re-designed and constructed with new electronics, a more powerful propulsion unit and improved propeller functionality for better handling and maneuverability. It is outfitted with proprietary electronics, including custom built PC-boards running newly developed command and control software that was architected specifically for the Argus One UAV platform. The pod bay continues to be designed to be "plug and play" for swift and easy integration of different payloads for various airship applications and missions.

The recent flight exercises in Maryland included various tests on the newly developed pod bay and integrated propulsion system. The Argus One airship was flown and monitored for two hours with no evidence of fatigue or stress resulting from the integration of the new pod bay and propulsion system. In these flight test exercises, the Argus One airship demonstrated significantly more maneuverability and an improved ability to withstand the winds while aloft.