Here are the programs that made the biggest news over the past week:
LCS’ future thrown into turmoil — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel confirmed the grim news during his budget preview briefing last week: 20 Littoral Combat Ships will get the axe in the new fiscal 2015 budget. Instead, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the service will take a strong look at the LCS to determine if it can be modified to improve lethality and survivability for the remaining 20 ships, or if a frigate-like ship should be procured instead, we reported. The move is certain to rub lawmakers in Wisconsin and Alabama the wrong way, and thus it remains to be seen whether Congress will sign off on it or attempt to rescue the ships, even in the face of a tightening budgets.
Global Hawks back in vogue — Northrop Grumman was a big winner in the internal Pentagon budget battle, based on Hagel’s comments. The Global Hawk, which leadership had tried to kill last year, will now get funding as the Air Force opts to mothball the U-2 fleet. Essentially, the service did an about-face on the program because the cost calculus of the Global Hawk had changed in the last 18 months. As Congress had suggested in the fiscal 2014 defense bills, the Air Force will place U-2 sensors on the Global Hawk and give the unmanned aircraft better all-weather capability.
Turkey moves forward on F-35 — A Reuters report indicated that Turkey was likely to start buying F-35s from 2015 onwards, starting with two initial orders and eventually expanding to about 100 aircraft within 10 years. The aircraft is starting to gain some momentum on the international market despite rampant speculation in recent years that some nations, even those that had funded the development of the aircraft, were reconsidering whether to buy the expensive aircraft or go with a current-generation fighter.
Big order for P-8As — Boeing received a $2 billion contract covering 16 P-8A Poseidons last week as the program moves into full-rate production. Ultimately, the Navy expects to purchase 117 of the aircraft, and already had 37 under contract before the announcement, with 13 delivered so far, we reported. Just days ago, the Australian government announced its intent to buy eight of the aircraft as the international market begins to heat up for the P-8.