World Cup Overwatch: Brazil’s AEW&C Modernization

Amazon AEW&C

Embraer’s ability to design and deliver EMB 145 AEW&C aerial surveillance jets to Brazil’s FAB and foreign customers places Brazil within an elite group of countries. The FAB’s 5 “E-99″ jets play a critical role in the SIVAM program to monitor the Amazon, provide security overwatch for major sporting events like the coming 2014 FIFA World Cup, and serve as a global showpiece for potential customers. They survey and manage air traffic, provide fighter positioning and interception control, and can conduct signals interception and analysis (SIGINT) missions.

In January 2013, Embraer received a $215 million (BRL 430 million) contract to upgrade the FAB’s 5 E-99s…

DARPA’s ABC of Airborne Lasers

747 ABL

In January 2013, Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, CA received a $9.5 million to cost-plus-fixed-fee contract modification under the Aero-Adaptive/Aero-Optic Beam Control (ABC) Program.

To explain that term in plain English, turbulence and other atmospheric conditions can de-focus laser beams, limiting their range and effectiveness. A laser that can adapt its focus to the conditions in its path offers a way to mitigate these problems, which makes it a topic of keen interest to militaries around the world. The famous 747 Airborne Laser did some pioneering work in this field, but lasers have both defensive and offensive uses beyond Ballistic Missile Defense. In ABC’s case…

ATP-SE: LITENING Strikes as USAF Splits Future Targeting Pod Orders

Sniper on F-16

At the end of September 2010, the USAF dropped something of a bombshell. Under their $2.3 billion Advanced Targeting Pod – Sensor Enhancement (ATP-SE) contract, the service that had begun standardizing on one future surveillance and targeting pod type decided to change course, and split its buys.

This decision is a huge breakthrough for Northrop Grumman, whose LITENING pod had lost the USAF’s initial 2001 Advanced Targeting Pod competition. As a result of that competition, the USAF’s buys had shifted from LITENING to Sniper pods, and Lockheed Martin’s Sniper became the pod of choice for integration onto new USAF platforms. Since then, both of these pods have chalked up procurement wins around the world, and both manufacturers kept improving their products. That continued competition would eventually change the landscape once again.

The Penny Drops: Iraq Chooses its Training & COIN Aircraft

IqAF T-6A

In counter-insurgency fights, slower aircraft are often better than front-line jet fighters. In April 2007, Flight International reported that the USAF’s Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) had issued a solicitation on behalf of the Iraqi Air Force [IqAF] to buy at least 8 counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft, with a dual role as intermediate to advanced single-engine turboprop trainers. The solicitation required a single-engine turboprop powered that is in “wide use,” powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 family engine, with an advanced suite of sensors and weapons including electro-optical sensors and guided weapons capability. Indeed, the solicitation went one step further, and narrowed the field to 4 candidates that can be difficult for a novice to tell apart.

The program’s planned timeline hit delays, and the training aircraft were technically split from the counter-insurgency buy. Formal requests were issued in 2008 for up to 56 aircraft, as Iraq sought a combination of trainer and armed COIN aircraft, using different variants of the same plane. The trainers have all arrived. The armed turboprop buy remains in limbo.

Rapid Fire Jan. 22, 2013: Fix These Ships (Or Not)

• In the absence of FY13 appropriations, the US Navy is stuck with Ticonderoga-class cruisers that it wanted to decommission but Congress decided otherwise. However federal funding is currently provided by a continuing resolution (i.e. the extension of FY12 spending levels) that does not include money to maintain, let alone upgrade these ships. Congressional cognitive dissonance? Say it ain’t so. Virginian-Pilot | CRS backgrounder [Dec. 2012 PDF].

• NAVSEA has issued solicitation N00024-13-R-4400 for the Extended Dry-Docking Selected Restricted Availability (EDSRA) of USS Porter (DDG 78). Work will include repairs after the destroyer crashed with a tanker last August. Bids expected by Feb. 15, 2013. Voyage repairs were made in the UAE and the ship returned to Norfolk, VA, in November.

• The NYT notes that China, flush with 3 trillion dollars in foreign reserves, is investing in aerospace which in turn raises security questions. The appropriate time for such considerations from lawmakers and the media would have been before selling China more than one trillion dollars worth of US treasuries [CRS briefing, PDF].