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Rapid Fire September 26, 2012: Emerging Export Pitfalls

• Sikorsky announced on Monday that they would close their Military Completions Center in Big Flats, NY, by the end of the year. That facility was developed in 2007, following the acquisition of Schweizer Aircraft in 2004, to prep Black Hawk and Naval Hawk helicopters for Foreign Military Sales. 570 people will lose their jobs in the process.

• Daniel Goure at the Lexington Institute asks a very salient question: how much risk are US companies taking by betting heavily on sales to Asia and the Middle East? He is focused on potential political disruptions, but economic concerns should not be dismissed as casually as he does. In recent months growth has markedly slowed down in China and India, among other emerging markets that face heavy imbalances.

Boeing Remanufactures AH-64A Apaches to AH-64D Block II

Before: AH-64A

With the collapse of the RAH-66 Comanche program, and rededication of its funding into the ARH-70 Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH), the UH-145 Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), and other programs, the AH-64 Apache will remain the primary attack helicopter flown by the US and its allies over the coming decades. Unsurprisingly, some degree of remanufacturing and conversions to AH-64D status are either completed or ongoing for almost all AH-64A Apache owners.

In January 2007, Boeing announced a $1.149 billion extended Block II contract for the remanufacture of 96 US. Army AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters, as well as 30 AH-64Ds for the United Arab Emirates. That number has continued to grow, until it encompassed all of the US Army’s remaining AH-64A Apache attack helicopters.

LVSR: The Marines’ Heavy Trucks

LVSR comes ashore

Why are trucks a big deal? Because they are the unglamorous but very necessary backbone of any mobile military force. The US Marines certainly fit the description of a mobile force, and Oshkosh Defense supplies their MTVR medium trucks. In 2006, the Marines took the next step, and chose a winner to replace a worn-down Oshkosh LVS heavy truck fleet that has served since 1985.

Like their predecessors, these new “Logistic Vehicle System Replacement” (LVSR) heavy trucks will usually find themselves transporting heavy equipment, or basic supplies such as ammunition, fuel, and water. The LVSR winner was also an Oshkosh design.

• Oshkosh’s LVSR Truck Family
  
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
  

Rapid Fire September 25, 2012: BAE, EADS at International Crossroads

This way to the top

Chinese authorities officially confirmed [government source, in Chinese] today that they commissioned the Liaoning (formerly the USSR’s unfinished Riga then Varyag), their first aircraft carrier.

The USA’s Future Intermediate Research Fleet [AGOR]

RV Kilo Moana

The USA’s University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System conducts research throughout the world’s oceans, and their fleet has shifted to 4 basic research vessel types: Global, Ocean/Intermediate, Regional and Coastal/Local. From 2014 onward, new Ocean Class ships will replace aging Intermediate Class ships in current use, and serve alongside the new SWATH-hulled RV Kilo Moana [T-AGOR 26]. Growing trends towards larger, interdisciplinary science teams, using more sophisticated research equipment, means a need for larger and more sophisticated ships. They new Ocean Class will provide parties of up to 25 scientists with an advanced blue-water platform that can stay at sea for up to 40 days, and cover up to 10,000 nautical miles.

Can they be built affordably? The US Navy is managing the competition, construction, and chartering process, and the 1st build contract was issued in October 2011.

Rapid Fire September 24, 2012: Chinese Carrier

• China’s first aircraft carrier was delivered to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)… or was it really? After Vice President’s Xi Jinping temporary disappearance for two weeks earlier this month for reasons that remain unclear, there’s a disturbing level of opacity and fuzziness in the current news flow out of China.

• Boeing is pitching its C-17s to South Africa while China has made a concerted push at this year’s Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) in Tshwane (formerly Pretoria).

Voted Off the Island: The USCG’s Deepwater FRC Cutters

CGC Sanibel

The USCG wants to buy 58 Fast Response Cutters (FRC), and these Sentinel Class boats are sorely needed by an overstretched US Coast Guard. An attempt to extend the lives of their aged Island Class cutters ended as an expensive failure in 2005, and string of blunders has delayed replacements. In February 2006, the Coast Guard’s Deepwater system-of-systems program ‘temporarily’ suspended design work on the FRC-A program due to technical risk. FRC-A was eventually canceled in favor of an off-the-shelf buy (FRC-B), and on March 14/07, the ICGS contractor consortium lost responsibility for the Deepwater FRC-B program as well. By then, even an off-the-shelf buy couldn’t get the Coast Guard any delivered replacements before April 2012.

When the Island Class refurbishment program was terminated in June 2005, 41 Island Class vessels like the USCGC Sanibel, above, still plied US and international waters. FRC Sentinnel Class deliveries have begun, but the Island Class’ safe lifetime is running out fast. DID discusses the programs, their outcomes and controversies, the fate of the Island Class and FRC-A programs, and the work underway to replace them.

Thailand Orders Eurocopter’s EC725 for SAR Missions

French EC725, SAR

In September 2012, the Thai Air Force signed an undisclosed contract with EADS Eurocopter for 4 EC725 medium search and rescue (SAR) helicopters. The twin-engine EC725 Cougar features a unique digital 4-axis autopilot, which is very useful for precise positioning during retrievals. It’s also a good deal larger than the Army’s H-60 Black Hawks and UH-1 Hueys, with seating on board for 25 persons. Based on contracts elsewhere, a price of around $180-220 million seems likely. Deliveries will take place in 2015, at which point Thailand will join their neighbor Malaysia and Singapore as local military operators of the Super Puma family.

There’s also a larger competition underway for business within Thailand, as the country looks to modernize its Vietnam-era helicopter fleet. Eurocopter sold the Thai Army 8 AS550-C3 Fennec light scout and utility helicopters in 2011, and has received interest from the Royal Thai Police. Eurocopter’s line will be competing with Sikorsky’s Black Hawk/ Seahawk family. Thailand’s services have bought several H-60 variants, and the Cougar implicitly beat HH-60 Pave Hawks for the SAR mission. Eurocopter and Sikorsky will also have to deal with Russia’s Mil series – especially the multi-role Mi-17, whose low price has given it a foothold in Thailand’s armed forces. Eurocopter.

Restoring Hercules: The USA’s C-130 AMP Program

C-130 AMP cockpit
(click to view larger)

The USA’s C-130E/H medium air transport fleet suffers from 2 key problems: (1) many aircraft, especially Air National Guard planes, aren’t flyable, or won’t remain so much longer; and (2) their avionics are too old to meet modern standards for flight in civil airspace, just as standards are set to tighten in 2015.

The 1st problem is being addressed by major structural rework, inspections, and groundings. The 2nd problem was supposed to be addressed by the C-130 AMP program, begun in 2001 in order to improve aircraft fight-readiness, flight times, flexibility, and fuel use. Higher than expected costs left the program yo-yoing between possible cancellation and slowed progress over the last few years, and the near-death experiences eventually caught up to it. C-130 AMP has been proposed for cancellation in the FY 2013 budget, while the USAF searches for alternatives that it might be able to afford.