GA Sells Gray Eagle UAVs, Service to Army at $7 Million a Pop | KAI Signs Airbus for Delivery of Previously Won Helicopter Tender | UK Puma MK2s in Afghanistan

Americas

• The Army awarded General Atomics a contract for 19 Gray Eagle UAVs, as part of a $132m contract which also included SATCOM terminals and support.

• The Babcock & Wilcox Company received contract work totalling $169m for naval reactor fuel and materials, with B&W having restructured their government operations last year.

• Defense hawks and fiscal hardballers continue to clash over defense spending.

Europe

• Airbus Helicopters and Korean Aerospace Industries penned a partnership deal to produce new civil and armed helicopters for South Korea. The two parties won a significant helicopter program contract in 2005. KAI beat Korean Air in July 2014 for the role of lead designer of the helicopters. The development budget was expected to be $884 million.

• In another major win for the Airbus Group, the Airbus Defence and Space company won a contract to build three SIGINT satellites for the French military.

• The Royal Air Force saw the first deployment of new Puma Mk2 helicopters to Afghanistan, three weeks after achieving Initial Operating Capability.

Asia

• Malaysia received the first of four Airbus A400 transport aircraft, with this being the first export customer for the model.

• China became the world’s third-largest arms exporter, according to figures published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This amounted to a 143% increase in sales over the last five years.

Today’s Video

• The aforementioned Puma conducts low-level flying…

Army Looks for M4A1 Improvements | New Hawkeyes Finally Deployed | U.S. Puts THAAD on South Korea Resource List

Americas

• The Army released a Sources Sought notice (W15QKN-15-X-7820), looking for one vendor that can bundle together a series of aftermarket improvements to the M4A1 carbine. The package, to be called the M4A1+, includes increased accuracy, rails, mounting surfaces, neutral, non-black, color, coatings, backup sites and a kitchen sink full of other, smaller improvements.

• U.S. Northcom chief Adm. Bill Gortney told a Senate committee – in the course of expressing angst at the prospect of continued sequestration budget rules – that the U.S. might be facing a renewed cold war. The Administration to date has been reluctant to use the term.

• NATO officials are contradicting a Canadian government report to Parliament that Russia had acted aggressively toward one of its ships in the Black Sea.

• The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye prop planes are off on their first carrier deployment, five of them having been assigned to the Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). In addition to having twice the observation resolution, the glass cockpit allows the co-pilot swap between flying duties and helping handle the information inflow.

• Argentina is joining a quickly growing list of nations producing their own drones. The INVAP-produced UAVs will reportedly be capable of staying in the air for 12 to 20 hours, providing the ability to be useful as ship-launched observers. The initial investment is reported to be $238 million.

Europe

• The French Navy is now considering the NH-90s to be fully capable in anti-submarine duties (French), now that they have successfully launched MU-90 torpedoes from the helicopters.

• Russia is officially abandoning (Russian) the Antonov AN-70 project into which it has invested billions of rubles. This was not unexpected, given the hostilities between Russia and Antonov’s Ukraine. Antonov is located primarily in Kiev and its outskirts, fairly distant from the relatively acquirable real estate in the eastern parts of Ukraine. Russia has been pushing increased planning and procurement with the domestic firm Ilyushin in recent months.

Middle East

• Very happy with its anti-ship missile designs of late, Iran is opening up a production line to pump them out. The country claims their Qadir missiles have a 185 mile range. The Persian Gulf ranges from 35 miles wide to 230 miles wide.

Asia

• The U.S. has reportedly officially added THAAD to the resources it would supply to South Korea in an emergency. China has been openly nervous about an American anti-missile system sitting so close to its borders.

• Aerospace maintenance firm TAE saw its management buy out its holding company, Air New Zealand, becoming an entirely Australian-owned firm, which may have figured in its recent contract win as the primary maintainers of the coming F-35 engines of the RAAF.

Today’s Video

• The Fire Scout (MQ-8B) maritime drone is tested aboard the USS Fort Worth (LCS-3)…

SecDef’s Office: F-35 Progress Worse than Feared | Marines May Compress ACV Procurement | Europeans Share a Neuron (UCAV) for Testing

Americas

• Where the Marines had split their Amphibious Combat Vehicle procurement into three spec levels – thinking that to demand everything up front would create a typical gold plated defense program cost death spiral – it turns out that the major competitors appear to be reaching the second phase of capability before the competition for the first phase is complete. The key difference from expectations: most of the vehicles will actually be able to swim ashore on their own power, a capability expected in the second phase.

• As expected, a Navy study will report that it needs more EA-18G Growler aircraft, and thereby successfully extend the life of the manufacturing line for the F/A-18 from its planned 2017 demise. This will make those skeptical that the F-35 will meet its operational promises in the near-term breathe a little easier.

• Those expecting the F-35 to meet its operational capabilities in the near-term will not be breathing much easier now that Office of the Secretary of Defense has published its progress report for the F-35. It’s a hot mess. The glass-half-empty analysts over at POGO have their own analysis of the report here, which essentially parrots the OSD report, but uses more adjectives and an indignant tone.

• The Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, still being assembled, will operate out of Norfolk, VA, joining three other carriers.

Europe

• Europe’s stealth unmanned combat air system, the Neuron, has finished its flight test campaign in France and will move on to first to Italy and then to Sweden to test out weapons delivery, among other things. Its first flight was in 2012. The project has been run by Dassault Aviation and the French defense procurement agency and incorporated support from several other European countries who together opted to share a Neuron rather than develop overlapping capabilities.

• Poland has reportedly requested Tomahawk cruise missiles from the U.S. to help equip its new submarines.

Asia

• The Dassault/India/Rafale saga continues unabated, but it may have given some impetus to accelerate the fighter deal India has been formulating with Russia for a fifth generation fighter. To accelerate deliveries to 36 months from signing, versus 94 months, India would insist on fewer technology transfers and manufacturing set-asides for its own aviation industry.

• Pakistan wants to proffer its own JF-17 as an alternative for the Bulgarian bid to replace its old MiG-21s.

Today’s Video

• The Fire Scout (MQ-8B) maritime drone is tested aboard the USS Fort Worth (LCS-3)…

Sikorsky On the Block | Turkish F-4 Crashes Lead to Mothballing | Army Frustrated by Base Closing Fetters

Americas

• Sikorsky, only last week speaking about divesting itself of one if its small helicopter brands, found itself on the block on Wednesday, as the United Technologies board of directors chummed the market by announcing publicly that it was looking for “strategic alternatives.” Because the Pentagon would be unlikely to allow further consolidation among major U.S. helicopter producers, a foreign buyer may be more likely in the case of a sale.

• The Army is spending about half a billion of dollars a year on empty buildings, as troops are cut, but Congress limits its ability to close bases. This was brought home with congressional testimony yesterday by Army Secretary John McHugh and Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff. Both officials told the Senate Appropriations Committee that with sequestration, every base would face scattered cuts, causing inefficiencies such as the empty build maintenance costs.

• At that same hearing, the Army brass made another go at convincing Congress that its Aviation Restructuring Initiative (ARI) was a smart redeployment of resources. Savings estimated: $12 billion.

• Former carrier pilot Sen. John McCain told Navy officials that the new Ford class of carriers is too expensive, coming in between $11 and $13 billion per copy. The first is being tested now before being delivered to the Navy. The second (JFK) and third (Enterprise) are in various states of construction. The Enterprise will be the ninth ship to take on the name. The eighth, CVN-65, was a carrier McCain served on in the 1960s, flying A-1 Skyraiders in a ground support role.

Europe

• BAE won $383 million of design work for the finalization of the successor to the U.K.’s Vanguard class submarines.

• Today is the last day for F-4s to fly over Turkey. After a series of accidents, the country is decommissioning the last of its F-4 variants (RF-4Es).

• The MiG Corporation said that the MiG-31 would continue to be a key heavy fighter-interceptor for Russia until 2026. The fighter first entered service in 1981 when Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” topped the charts and some of Jimmy Carter’s furniture was still in the White House. Production ended in 1994. MiG is working on a replacement.

Asia

• Pakistan test fired a nuclear-capable Shaheen III missile into the Arabian Sea. The missile is reported to have a 1,700 mile range.

Middle East

• Libya, already the recipient of three MIg-21MF fighters from Egypt, is getting two more , as it fights common militant islamist enemy groups.

Today’s Video

• How to build a $13 billion super-carrier in less than four minutes…

JSTARS Opened Up to European Vendors | DDG-1000 Late but Loved

Europe

• Sweden’s defense minister said the country will not renew its defense cooperation deal – in effect since 2005 – after the left-leaning government saw its relations gradually worsen with the Saudi monarchy. Sweden has been critical of the Saudi human rights records, and recently watched Germany forbid certain defense deals with the country for similar reasons.

• Airbus, Dassault and Bombardier may now be invited to compete for a JSTARS replacement. The initial decision to attempt a replacement with a Boeing 767-based airframe with Northrop Grumman was cancelled due to gushing costs. The Air Force is opening it up to international competition. The service also indicated that it would like to see an airframe that is smaller than the original JSTARS Boeing 707 E-8C.

Americas

• Boeing and Saab cooperated to get an interesting project off the ground, with a ground-launched version of the Small Diameter Bomb now in testing. The SDB is already quite maneuverable, and with the ground launched version (GLSDB) it doesn’t need an airframe for delivery. The bomb has the theoretical capacity to attack targets from the unexpected angles, unlike ballistic bombs or missiles.

• Navy observer Chris Hooper is calling this the moment to which everyone will look back and realize that the Navy had started pushing again to resurrect the almost assuredly canceled DD(X). The ingredients are certainly there, with a bloating DDG-51 program making the excesses of the DD(X) a bit more tolerable. Sea trials will start soon with the first of the three hulls, so the drumbeats of passed tests should soon start rolling, along with YouTube videos of the futuristic craft slicing through the Kennebec.

• Meanwhile, the Navy indicates that the Zumwalt, the first of the DD(X)s, or DDG-1000, won’t be delivered until November, about a year late, and won’t earn initial combat readiness until September 2018, a couple years after initially scheduled.

• It took an Army major to do the math as to why mothballing the A-10 won’t actually save the Air Force the $3.5 billion it hopes to squeeze out, primarily due to the much higher costs of running other aircraft as close air support vehicles.

• Officials with the F-35 program indicated the airframe won’t be ready for full close air support duties prior to the 2022 scheduled delivery of the new Small Diameter Bomb II. This may miss the point of many Air Force critics that SDMs are a poor tool for CAS relative to slow-flying, strafing aircraft. The gap-filling aircraft are slated to be F-16s and F-15s, which suffer the same mismatched speed specifications.

• Inside Defense reports (subscription) that the F-35A cost $67,549 per flight hour in FY 2014, according to the Air Force’s own figures. This is $813 per hour less than what the F-22 cost per hour the last time those figures were released in 2012. It is typical for cost per flight hour figures to be quite high in the early years of an airframe. The F-35 has only had seven years of flight versus the F-22’s 18 years.

Asia

• General Dynamics Land Systems and Thales Australia will team together to answer the request for tender for Australia’s Land 400 Phase 2 – Mounted Combat Reconnaissance Capability, which is Australian for armored fighting vehicles.

Today’s Video

• The U.S. was keen to show video of Abrams and Bradleys moving off transport ships onto Latvian soil…

Navy Refurbishing F-18s 1 Per Week; Buying F-35s 1 per Quarter | Keel of Virginia-Class Colorado Laid in Rhode Island

Americas

• Much tut-tutting is heard in the trade press now that the Air Force is stating openly that the F-35 will not be prepared to take on the close air support (CAS) role for which it is, in small part, slated. This has not slowed down the Air Force’s ardor for retiring the current CAS airframe, the A-10. It is certainly handy for the Air Force to shift a few billion dollars over to the needful F-35 project in the interim.

• In related news, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair John McCain is promising to reverse what he sees as dunderheaded Air Force moves to mothball the A-10s. He has vocal congressional support, including that from fellow Arizonan Martha McSally (R-AZ) who herself was a warthog pilot supporting Operation Southern Watch over Iraq and Kuwait.

• The U.S. Navy is pumping out newly refurbished F/A-18s at a much faster clip than Lockheed is producing the F-35s, guaranteeing the Navy’s primary strike capacity will be its F-18s for the next decade at least. Plans are to extend the Super Hornet’s hours capacity from 6,000 to 10,000. The Navy hasn’t been terribly gung-ho on F-35 procurement, averaging about four per year for first seven years, and planning to order four more for 2016. The Navy intends to refurbish another 50 F-18s in the coming year, up from 40 the year before.

• The keel of the Colorado, the 15th and newest of the Virginia class fast attack submarine was laid in a ceremony in Rhode Island. The subs, at about $2.5 billion a piece, were designed in the Clinton era specifically to be more cost-efficient than the Seawolf class, which topped out at about $3.5 billion per boat by the time the third and last was finished. The Seawolf was one of the first major weapons systems in the modern era that was extinguished by the politically unsupportable weight of its costs in what would later be termed a “cost death spiral.” Reduced numbers of units caused a cost-per-unit rise that then fed additionally into the pressure to cut future units.

Middle East

• The profusion of new sensors on the battlefield brings the command and control elements virtually closer to the action, but this can cut both ways. More people seeing more information does not quicken the decision making process, and pilots loitering over ISIS targets are starting to complain.

• Sikorski is about to start the upgrading process for UAE’s Black Hawks.

• Iran’s newly announced Soumar missile could carry a 410 kg warhead more than a thousand miles, or perhaps a bit less then that, in good part depending on whether or not the Iranians have access to the Russian TRDD-30 or Ukrainian R95 engines. The Russian version of this – the Kh55 – carries a roughly 200 kiloton nuclear warhead.

• Saudi Arabia beat out India this past year in defense imports to become the worlds largest importer by value.

Asia

• Yonhap is reporting that China’s President Xi Jinping directly appealed to South Korean President Park Geun-hye, entreating her to reject the American effort to install THAAD on the Korean Peninsula. The THAAD system, directed at the undeniable North Korean missile threat, could theoretically also cork up some of China’s capacity to lob missiles eastward toward Pacific targets. China is reportedly willing to give South Korea unspecified trade benefits, which seems a poor bargain versus an existential threat. The Chinese may be expecting to win only a limited assurance or a type of system limitation. Seoul’s strategy to date appears to have been reaffirmed in another Yonhap report, with the government repeatedly stressing it has no plans to purchase a THAAD system and shrugging at the suggestion that the U.S. would install its own to protect the 28,500 U.S. troops hosted by South Korea.

Today’s Video

• Iran’s Soumar missile is unveiled. Here is a test flight…

AF Turbo Appeal Decision: A-10 Stays on Death Row | ISIS Soaking Up Bombs, Depleting Stockpiles | Kendall Worries about Cyber Vulnerabilities | Navy Eyes F/A-18 Hedge

Americas

• The Air Force again concluded it should phase out the A-10, after an oddly brief reconsideration period (a week). The plan is to move the close air support mission to F-16s and F-15s until such time as the F-35A can take on the role, which is not expected to be soon. General Herbert Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command mused that at some point after the A-10 budget has been shunted to the F-35 program, the Air Force could conceivably replace it, and even named a potential contender, the Textron Airland Scorpion.

• After dropping more than 3,000 bombs along with its allies, the U.S. is looking at what it might need to do to
  

• Procurer-in-chief Frank Kendall said that cyber attacks on U.S. weapons programs are pervasive and that future procurement will pay much more attention to maintaining secure systems.

• More and more it seems that the Navy many need to hedge its bets on the F-35, keeping the F/A-18 production lines open (scheduled to be done current orders in 2017) in order to retain adequate protection for its other aircraft. It also is not lost on the Navy that it can purchase three or four Super Hornets for the cost of an F-35, which matters in times of sequestration.

• The Navy is using underwater drones to suss out the salinity, temperature, currents and melting patterns in what are likely to become shipping lanes in the Arctic.

• Alaska appears to be making some progress in winning a basing decision for the F-35.

Europe

• The European Commission president suggested in an interview that the 28 EU nations should combine their militaries. Europe’s militaries have in recent decades been more instruments of industrial policy than military capacity. Jean-Claude Juncker’s proposal would be designed to attack this weakness, but it presupposes that various European nations have the same foreign policy and military designs; likely to be a tough sell in some capitals.

into a single organization.

• Despite the spontaneous combustion issue, Germany remains committed to the NH90, signing a deal for 18 new helicopters for its navy.

• A competent review of the Russian Borei class boomer included the total cost estimate of the first of the new SSBNs: $713 million, including the research and design. It isn’t an SSBN-X, but it appears to be effective in its deterrent role for a third the cost of an Ohio-class U.S. boomer.

• The Netherlands are looking to diversify their UAV portfolio.

Asia

• China is rebadging its Changjiang-10 cruise missiles as Dongfeng-10, or DF-10s.

• Australia is putting out for tender a request for 21 patrol boats to be provided to a dozen Pacific island neighbors.

• China is pushing hard to increase its share of the Latin American military exports market, selling cheaper goods and – key for several countries – goods without pesky restrictions.

Middle East

• The U.S. State Department approved a potential sale of M31 Unitary Guided Multiple Launch rocket Systems to Jordan.

Today’s Video

• A look at technology used to explore under the ice (this project in the Antarctic, rather than the arctic)…

Bomber to Be Bought Cost-Plus | More A-10s Mothballed | China Defense Budget up 10%

Americas

• The Wall Street Journal (paid) reported today that the impending choice for the future bomber will be constructed via a cost-plus deal, surprising most Pentagon watchers, as the DoD has been trying hard to move away from owning the cost overage liabilities. Boeing, teamed with Lockheed Martin, is competing against Northrop Grumman in a competition expected to finish this summer for 80 to 100 bombers at an expected cost of about $55 billion. The Air Force has said it will keep costs down by sticking largely to the 2010 spec and by using established technologies, although those methods would imply lower liabilities and make the cost-plus decision a bit more puzzling.

• Lockheed Martin’s ATHENA currently-ground-based laser weapon disabled a running (but stationary) truck. It was a demonstration of fiber optic laser technology that they have been tweaking to maximize efficiency.

• Two days ago, we reported on the Air Force mothballing 9 A-10s. Yesterday, the Air Force announced another 18 A-10s put in Backup-Aircraft Inventory status, for a total of 27, nine fewer than the 36 authorized by Congress. The Air Force says that there would be too few maintenance techs available for the F-35 program if they were to try to run all of their A-10s.

• Sikorsky thinks it has a good thing in its coaxial Raider helicopter that sports double rotors on top and a pusher propeller in the back. It hasn’t even flown yet, but Sikorsky is looking at potential military competition applications, including as a possible replacement for the H-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apaches.

• Sikorsky is signaling that it wouldn’t mind if someone took over its Schweizer line of light helicopters. Sikorsky hasn’t done much with the line since it closed the Elmira, NY plant six years after its acquisition. A few orders are now being produced out of its Coatesville, PA facility. Sikorsky used the Schweizer S-434 platform – now discontinued – for the basis of its bid for the MQ-8C Fire Scout competition, which it lost to Bell’s 407.

• SAIC is buying Scitor Corp., an IT support firm for intelligence, national security and space-related agencies. The deal is reported to be for $780 in cash.

• Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) very publicly requested a meeting with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to discuss spending waste. Sanders, a supporter of the F-35 program, which has been working to use a Burlington facility as a base, pointed to many GAO recommendations that have not yet been heeded by the Pentagon. Sanders has been exploring the possibility of running for president.

Europe

• A few NATO warships in the Black Sea appear to be getting a good view of the newest Russian fighters, as they are reportedly conducting mock attack runs. The Su-30s and Su-24s appear to hail from a recently annexed Crimean air base.

• Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland has started producing its AW609 tilt-rotor aircraft out of Philadelphia, PA.

Asia

• China announced that its next budget will increase military expenditures by just over 10 percent. Official figures in the past have been prone to quite significant under-reporting.

• The Phillipines will soon be flying new C-295 medium lift aircraft a few months early. The transports, made by EADS/CASA-Airbus Military, are part of a roughly $120 million contract. They are scheduled for a March delivery, instead of the contracted August deadline.

Today’s Video

• Lockheed’s powerful laser test of late was much more powerful than this one shown a year ago employing Lockheed’s ADAM system to defeat a small rocket…

Israeli Request for Anti-Missile Help at Mercy of Sequestration | GAO: Smaller Procurement Projects Also Poorly Performing, Measured

Americas

• The U.S. approved BAE’s Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures system for export.

• The General Accountability Office released its study (PDF) of 15 ACAT II and ACAT III programs – those not reaching the lofty spending heights of the major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) – and found that, generally, they face the same problems as the MDAPs. That is, they are more often than not over budget and late, and that the reasons behind the overages and tardiness are the same: “changing performance requirements, testing issues, quantity changes, and flaws in original cost estimates, among other factors.”

• Bell Helicopter announced a 200-helicopter deal signed with Air Methods Corporation, a heavy user of helicopter emergency medical services craft.

• Orbital ATK is starting to test newly designed propulsion components to power what it hopes will be a March 2016 first launch for the upgraded Antares rocket. In October, an Antares exploded in an event blamed by Orbital ATK on Russian engines designed and built about half a century ago and refurbished by Aerojet, a Russian firm. The new engines are to be RD-181 engines made by Russian firm Energomash.

Europe

• Now that the U.S. has green-lighted UAV sales to allies, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. and Spanish engineering firm SENER are partnering to bring the Predator B to Iberia.

• In the course of expressing some unvarnished opinions to the AP about the benefits of providing arms to Ukraine, General Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe, gave the short shopping list of what Ukrainian military officials would most want: “intelligence, counter fire capability and something that can stop a Russian tank.”

• Defense News caught a small procurement competition notice asking for up to 50 buses to be provided in Ukraine to ferry trainers and troops in support of an American training effort to train four companies of Ukrainian National Guard. That plan is said to be on hold while the Administration waits to see how successful the most recent cease fire proves.

• France will soon have a second built-for-Russia Mistral class helicopter carrier on its hands. The first, the Vladivostok, is biding its time while France waits for a period during which Russia does not appear to be acting war-like against European allies. The second, the Sevastopol, should
  

Middle East

Israel is asking for almost half a billion dollars in help with anti-missile defense, and amount about three times what the White House’s budget had tabled, and a difficult one to shift into the budget if sequestration is retained through the coming fiscal year. One observer said he thought the funds might be freed, and if so, it would be likely to come from the Lockheed THAAD program budget.

Today’s Video

• BAE’s old but much respected Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures system, recently approved for export…

Bell: Used Helicopter Market Facing Supply Pressure | France Mortgages Defense Assets to Buy More | India Restarts Light Helicopter Competition

Americas

• The USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) came off the stocks at Austal’s manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama. Austal will soon be pumping out two LCSs per year. The Giffords will be delivered in 2017 after further work and testing is done.

• Bell Helicopter is worried that the U.S. will be dumping the almost 800 helicopters it is rendering obsolete with its Aviation Restructure Initiative onto foreign markets, severely depressing the market for helicopter sales.

• Boeing’s F/A-18 production line is set to be finished up in 2017 in the absence of new orders, but it feels pretty bullish about the prospects of new orders. With additional Growler demand; foreign fighter upgrades and the F-35 price to value ratio being questioned in several partner countries, such as Canada, it seems unlikely there won’t be activity past 2017.

• Boeing won an order for 35 Apache AH-64E helicopters.

Europe

• Rather than just sell spectrum assets and shunt the money over to the 2.2 billion Euro hole in its defense budget, France is concocting a sale/lease-back arrangement, where it will sell several A400Ms, a few FREMM frigates and various other hardware to a new firm owned by the state, and then lease those assets back. From itself. The budget kabuki will serve to remove Parliament from the choice of where spectrum sales proceeds will go (which it will authorize with the passage of a bill currently under debate). The effect will be to characterize hardware purchases as revenues roughly commensurate to items’ purchase prices, which allows France – on paper at least – to double its procurement spending by effectively printing money. But those revenues that come in as finance payments will be paid into concerns that are military-specific, and the costs will be characterized as operations expenses, rather than capital expenses.

• The Crimean State Council nationalized the Kamysh-Burun cargo port in Kerch, taking it from Ukranian company Altcom.

Asia

• India will restart its reconnaissance/surveillance helicopter (RSH) procurement process, after having botched the first two attempts.

• India released an RFI for 50 ship launchable drones.

Today’s Video

• With the light helicopter competition restarting (again) in India, here is what Bell will be offering them this time around…