Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
US NAVY AWARD SUPPORT CONTRACT FOR H-60 SEAHAWK HELICOPTERS
The US Navy has awarded a $1.4 billion contract to the Maritime Helicopter Support Company – a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation – to provide performance-based logistics support for over 490 H-60 Seahawk naval helicopters.
Under the firm fixed price follow-on contract, MHSCo will manage the supply chain and provide over 1,250 components and subsystems for the Seahawk family of helicopters operated by the US Navy and navies of other countries.
The supported aircraft include the naval SH-60B, SH-60F, HH-60H, MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters, Coast Guard HH-60J helicopters and other H-60 aircraft operated by customers of the US Navy’s Foreign Military Sales programme, Sikorsky said in a statement.
Boeing completes structural integrity of P-8A Poseidon airframe
Boeing has completed structural integrity of the airframe for US Navy's long-range maritime surveillance aircraft P-8A Poseidon which will now be prepared for live-fire testing.
The airframe structure, S1, underwent full scale static testing from May 2009 till January 2011. Put to 154 different tests, it sustained loads equal to or greater than those expected to occur during operational flights, with no failure of the primary structure.
During 74 of the tests, the airframe was subjected to 150 percent of the highest expected flight loads, Boeing said.
The company will begin refurbishing the airframe in September to prepare it for live-fire testing at Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, California.
Fatigue tests on its second ground-test vehicle, S2, will begin later this year, it said.
Boeing to cut 1,100 jobs in C-17 program
US aerospace giant Boeing said Thursday it will cut about 1,100 jobs over the next two years as it slows production of its C-17 military transport aircraft.
Boeing said it would deliver 13 C-17s in 2011, one less than the prior year, as it moves to a new annual production rate of 10.
"Boeing will reduce the production program's work force by approximately 1,100 jobs through the end of 2012," the Chicago-based firm said in statement.
The transition to the new production rate was announced in February 2010.
The long-haul military cargo C-17, which is in its 18th year of service, can carry large equipment, supplies and troops directly to small airfields, the company says.
"The fleet continues to operate at an accelerated rate due to the recent troop surge in Afghanistan," Boeing said.
"It achieved two million total flight hours in December, less than five years after it passed the one-million-flight-hour mark."
The US Air force is the biggest customer, taking 206 of the 226 C-17s delivered worldwide.
Boeing's foreign military customers include Britain, Canada, Australia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as the NATO-led Strategic Airlift Capability consortium.
The C-17 has also supported humanitarian and disaster-relief missions, such as providing relief to Haiti in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane a year ago.
Boeing said the move to a slower production rate "will be completed this summer" and lead to the elimination of the second shift at the C-17 final assembly facility in Long Beach, California.
About 900 of the planned 1,100 job cuts were expected to be made at the Long Beach plant. The remainder of the reductions will occur in Arizona, Georgia and Missouri.
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