Serious Dollars for AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense Modifications (BMD)

AEGIS-BMD: CG-70
launches SM-3

The AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense System seamlessly integrates the SPY-1 radar, the MK 41 Vertical Launching System for missiles, the SM-3 Standard missile, and the ship’s command and control system, in order to give ships the ability to defend against enemy ballistic missiles. Like its less-capable AEGIS counterpart, AEGIS BMD can also work with other radars on land and sea via Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), receiving cues from other platforms and providing information to them, in order to create a more detailed battle picture than any one radar could produce alone.

AEGIS has become a widely-deployed top-tier air defense system, with customers in the USA, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Norway, and Spain. In a dawning age of rogue states and the spread of mass-destruction weapons, the US Navy is being pushed toward a “shield of the nation” role as the USA’s most flexible and and most numerous option for missile defense. AEGIS BMD modifications are the keystone of that effort – in the USA, and beyond.

Aerospace, Excelled: The USA’s Arnold Engineering Development Center

AEDC at work: X-29

The Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC), named for U.S. Air Force pioneer Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, bills itself as “The World’s Premier Flight Simulation Test Facility.” Nearly half of the AEDC’s 58 test facilities are unique in the U.S., and 14 are unique in the world. These specialized test facilities have played a crucial role in the development and sustainment of virtually every high performance aircraft, air-to-air and air-to-ground weapon, missile, and space system in use by all four of the U.S. military services today. The Center has also been involved in the development of every NASA manned space system, many satellites, and numerous commercial aircraft and spacecraft systems.

In 2003, the Air Force consolidated the test operations contract and the base services contract into a single contract for operations, maintenance, information management, and base support, which was awarded to Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) in Tullahoma, TN.

Rapid Fire Feb. 14, 2013: Finmeccanica Under Friendly Fire from Former Italian Premier

• In the wake of Giuseppe Orsi’s arrest last Tuesday, Finmeccanica’s board appointed COO/CFO Alessandro Pansa as the company’s CEO. At least until a board meeting coming in April, as the Italian government may want to pump new blood at the head. The matter is taking a political turn, with former prime minister Berlusconi going on TV to defend the paying of “commissions” in countries that are “not full democracies” if you want to close deals. With friends like these… Finmeccanica | FT | Bloomberg | Il Sole 24 Ore [in Italian] | Il Fatto Quotidiano [in Italian, with surreal video].

• In a release recapping their acquisition of AW-101 helicopters from Finmeccanica’s subsidiary AgustaWestland, the Indian government confirmed that it had “put on hold all further payments to Agusta Westland.” Since Mr Berlusconi may pull off a surprise electoral comeback in forthcoming elections in Italy, imagine then the awkwardness of his first meeting with Indian officials. In the meantime, the Times of India writes that documents filed in an Italian court point to bogus software and engineering contracts as the vehicles for the alleged kickbacks.

• Congressman Duncan Hunter [R-CA, HASC member], has a point in an interview with Politico, on how Pentagon officials have been handling their pre-sequestration communication: