Marines ready to train

Marine pilots at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will soon begin training flights in F-35B jets. That's the variant of the plane that can take off and land vertically, according to unidentified sources cited by Reuters. Test pilots began preliminary orientation flights of the F-35B at the air base in May and have completed nearly 200 limited flights, none involving vertical landings. (Source: Reuters, 08/22/12) Previous

Recovery ship gets new home

A ship that for years has been a player in the space program will now serve the Merchant Marines. NASA signed an agreement with the Maritime Administration to transfer the recovery ship M/V Liberty Star to the National Defense Reserve Fleet. It will be used in training at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. The ship is best known for retrieving space shuttle boosters that splashed into the Atlantic, but in the past year was used to retrieve the Orion crew capsule being developed for NASA's Space Launch System. Liberty Star was a regular to the Gulf Coast. Shuttle external tanks built at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans were placed on barges and towed to Kennedy Space Center by Liberty Star and its sister ship, M/V Freedom Star. NASA is still working to identify a new use for Freedom Star. (Source: Space, NASA, 08/21/12) Previous item mentioning Freedom Star

Contract: Coastal Helicopter, $9M

Coastal Helicopter Inc., Panama City, Fla., is being awarded a $9,043,184 firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for aircraft flight test support of programs such as the Advanced Littoral Reconnaissance Technologies, Office of Naval Research. Work will be done in Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. (70 percent) and Panama City, Fla. (30 percent), and is expected to be completed by August 2017. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Division is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 08/22/12)

Contract: Raytheon, $81.8M

Raytheon Co., Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded $81,839,791 firm-fixed price contract for Miniature Air Launched Decoy Jammers. Work is to be completed by Aug. 31, 2014. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/EBJM of Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. (Source: DoD, 08/22/12)

Group to hire base consultant

DOTHAN, Ala. -- Dothan will join other cities in southeast Alabama to pay for a consultant to protect Fort Rucker in a future base closure round. The city commission will spend $130,992 a year for three years. A spokesman for "Friends of Fort Rucker" said the idea is to take the offense on the next base closing round in order to capture additional missions. The Base Realignment and Closure Commission, the last one was in 2005, determines how to realign military resources. In the last round Fort Rucker was set to gain 2,000 jobs, but lost it at the last minute to Huntsville, Ala., and Redstone Arsenal. (Source: Dothan Eagle, 08/21/12) Fort Rucker is the primary training base for Army aviation.

AF begins using SBSS

The Air Force Space Command said it would begin operational use of a Boeing satellite built to monitor space debris. It's been nearly two years since the Space Based Surveillance Satellite was launched, and a problem with onboard electronics prevented its use until a fix  was made. The system is the only space-based sensor capable of monitoring debris without weather or atmospheric disruptions. (Source: Reuters, 08/20/12) Gulf Coast note: The 20th Space Control Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., tracks space debris with the world's most powerful radar.

Four AFSOC counties partner

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- Two counties in Florida and two in New Mexico that host Air Force Special Operation Command bases officially joined as sister counties through a proclamation ceremony at 1st Special Operations Wing headquarters Aug. 15. Civic leaders from Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties in Florida and Curry and Roosevelt counties near Cannon Air Force Base, N. M., said the intent is to open lines of communication on key issues that affect the AFSOC communities. Topics that could be addressed included the preservation of ranges and means to help preserve the AFSOC mission. (Source: 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs, 08/16/12)

A&D workforce study released

Aviation Week today released its 16th Annual Workforce Study, which analyzes current aerospace and defense workforce issues, trends and opportunities. Among other things, the study notes that A&D manufacturing has been the strong point of the American economy for the past four years, and this country is one of the hottest spots for off-shoring. The study says companies have landed new manufacturing facilities in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. The study is produced by Aviation Week in collaboration with the Aerospace Industries Association, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, NASA and National Defense Industrial Association. (Source: PRNewswire, 08/20/12)

Airbus and the workforce

The Mobile Press-Register poses the question, can a top-tier aerospace company co-exist with mid-wage companies in the same industry in the same area? That question came to the surface after giant Airbus said it was building an A320 assembly line in Mobile. The city is already home to a number of aerospace companies, and there's been some concern about whether those smaller companies will lose workers to Airbus. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 08/20/12)

Marine Aviation tower up

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The 30-foot tall Marine Aviation Memorial Tower is now standing at its new home at Veterans Memorial Park in Pensacola, the cradle of naval aviation. The bell tower, funded by donations, was dedicated Sunday in a ceremony attended by about 400 people. The company that built it, the Verdin Co. of Cincinnati, hopes to build 100 similar towers and place them nationwide. (Sources: multiple, including WEAR-TV, 08/18/12, WALA-TV, 08/19/12, Pensacola News Journal, 08/18/12 and 08/19/12)

Land use to be discussed

The Tri-County Small Area Studies will be discussed at three public meetings in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties during the week. The study, a joint venture of three counties and Eglin Air Force Base commissioned in 2011, deals with encroachment issues affecting Northwest Florida's military bases. It's a supplement to the Eglin Joint Land Use Study, published in 2009, which noted that encroachment -- civilian development around bases -- remained a serious issue. The idea behind the study is to balance the needs of the military mission with civilian development. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 08/18/12)

Contract: EADS, $19.8M

EADS-NA, Herndon, Va., was awarded a $19,811,574 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure contractor logistic support for the UH-72A program. Work will be done in Columbus, Miss., with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2012. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 08/17/12)

Pilot flies 100th F-35 sortie

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Lt. Col. Lee Kloos, commander of the 58th Fighter Squadron at the 33rd Fighter Wing, flew the 100th sortie of the F-35A variant at the base Thursday. The 90-miunute flight took Kloos over southern Alabama, Tyndall Air Force Base and Destin before he returned to Eglin about 10 a.m. He was accompanied on the flight by another F-35 piloted by Col. Andrew Toth. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 08/16/12) Eglin is home of the F-35 training center.

Refinancing OKd for parking

The State Bond Commission of Louisiana approved a request by officials of New Orleans International Airport to refinance existing bonds for additional parking. The panel approved the proposal to issue up to $40 million in bonds to refinance existing ones at a lower rate for an additional five years. The move will save airport officials about $500,000 a year in existing costs but tack another five years onto the life of the bonds, now set to mature in 2031. (Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 08/16/12)

HVPW program moves forward

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – The Boeing Co. Defense, Space and Security segment in St. Louis will help the U.S. Air Force design a rocket-propelled bomb for the F-35 that can destroy enemy bunkers, tunnels and other deeply buried targets. Boeing won a $1.4 million contract earlier this month for concept development of the High Velocity Penetrating Weapon (HVPW) program to develop a 2,000-pound bomb with the punch of a 5,000-pound gravity bomb. Boeing joins a list of defense contractors working on the program, including Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md.; MBDA Missile Systems of Paris and Raytheon of Waltham, Mass. Boeing also is working on a separate bunker-busting munitions program called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Previous on MOP (Source: Military and Aerospace Electronics, 08/16/12) Previous on HVPW

Indoor UAV center sparks interest

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- Some companies have already said they want to lease space at a proposed indoor unmanned vehicle test center once it's built. Larry Sassano, president of the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council, met with more than a dozen companies developing air and ground vehicles last week during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International show in Las Vegas. The Autonomous Vehicle Center, a venture between the EDC and the University of Florida, will be 45,000 square feet and built at UF's Research and Engineering Education Facility. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 08/15/12) Previous

Airline swaps A380 for A320, 330

Hong Kong Airlines is canceling an order for 10 A380 aircraft and switching to the smaller A330 and A320 aircraft, according to Financial Times. That's because the airline canceled its all-business class service to London. Industry watchers were surprised when the relatively small carrier ordered the world's largest passenger jet. Now it's going back to focusing on short, regional routes. (Source: Financial Times, 08/15/12) Gulf Coast note: Mobile, Ala., will become the home of an Airbus A320 assembly line. Previous

UT selling Goodrich assets soon

United Technologies will start taking bids soon on some Goodrich assets it has to sell as a condition of winning regulatory approval for its $16.5 billion takeover of Goodrich. UT closed its largest-ever acquisition last month, but has to sell assets like Goodrich's power generation and small-engine control units. Those assets could earn more than $500 million. The sale has attracted interest from rival aerospace companies. (Source: Reuters, 08/14/12) Previous. Gulf Coast note: The Goodrich Alabama Service Center in Foley, is now part of UT Aerospace Systems; the former UT-owned Rocketdyne, which has an operation at Stennis Space Center, Miss., is being sold to GenCorp.

Range squadron changes command

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Lt. Col. Bruce Bunce assumed command of the 81st Range Control Squadron from Lt. Col. Ryan Frederick in an Aug. 10 ceremony. Bunce previously served as the deputy squadron commander, 960th Airborne Air Control Squadron; director of operations, 522nd Training Squadron, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. Frederick will be assigned to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Source: 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs, 08/14/12)

First Mobile A320 customer known

What airline will be the first to get an A320 rolling off the assembly in Mobile, Ala.? According to Flightglobal, it will be Virgin America. The airline will take delivery of an A320neo from Mobile during the first quarter of 2016. The low-cost carrier will be the U.S. launch customer, and has 30 of the type on order. (Source: Flightglobal, 08/14/12) Airbus said in a July announcement that it's establishing a seven-building, 116-acre assembly line at Mobile's Brookley Aeroplex. It will be the first assembly line for Airbus in the United States. Airbus is part of EADS, which also has a helicopter manufacturing facility in Columbus, Miss.