23 Sep 15. Turkish LPD contract comes into effect. Turkey’s order for the local construction of a landing platform dock (LPD) based on the Spanish Juan Carlos class has come into effect, Navantia told IHS Jane’s on 22 September. The contract, signed in May, came into effect with the receipt of Turkey’s first payment for the vessel by Navantia on 18 September.
SEDEF Gemi Insaati will construct the 27,436 tonne amphibious ship, based on Navantia’s BPE (Buque de Proyección Estratégica) design, for the Turkish Navy’s Havuzlu Cikarma Gemisi (HCG) programme. With receipt of the first payment, construction work on the ship is scheduled to begin one year from now, with delivery scheduled for 2021. Local industry has a large role in the project, with Navantia (apart from its design role) teamed with local firm Aydin Yazilim ve Elektronik Sanayii (AYESAS) to develop the hardware for the ship’s integrated platform management system (IPMS), installing the IPMS, testing it and providing in-service maintenance. Navantia is also responsible for delivering design and technology transfer, and five 8,000 kW MAN Diesel & Turbo SE 16V32/40 diesel engines. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
18 Sep 15. USAF approves production of Rolls-Royce C-130 engine Upgrade.
Rolls-Royce’s eight-year effort to develop the T56 Series 3.5 engine upgrade is about to pay off, with the US Air Force expected to finalize a contract for 12 kits for installation into the legacy C-130 fleet later this month. Rolls-Royce anticipates a $38m contract with the Air Force for the first 12 kits by the end of the month, and another order of 38 upgrade packages by the end of the year, according to Tom Hartmann, Rolls-Royce senior vice president of customer business. The kits will be delivered in fiscal years 2016 and 2017, he said. The contract will follow the Pentagon’s decision to approve production of the engine upgrade earlier this month, dubbed Milestone C. The upcoming contract kicks off what is expected to be a long-running agreement with the Air Force to upgrade the entire fleet of 400 C-130E and C-130H engines. The Milestone C decision also allows Rolls-Royce to move forward with negotiations for foreign military sales of the upgrade kits. Hartmann declined to specify which FMS customers the company is working with, but all the countries that operate Lockheed Martin’s C-130 – including Canada, Norway, India and UAE – are potential customers. Rolls-Royce is also targeting the P-3 Orion submarine hunters, which also use the T56 engine developed by the company, Hartmann said.
The 3.5 upgrade will improve fuel consumption by at least 8 percent and increases time-on-wing by about 30 percent, Hartmann said. The kit is “completely plug-and-play,” and can easily be installed during regular maintenance of the older engines, which takes about 30-45 days.
The Air Force estimates fully implementing the 3.5 across the service’s C-130Hs will save $2bn by the end of the fleet’s service life, Hartmann noted. This is a good financial choice for the Air Force because Rolls-Royce has already paid to design and engineer the upgrade, he added.
Even if the Pentagon is forced to operate next year under a long-term continuing resolution, the Air Force will still have enough money to buy additional upgrade kits next year, Hartmann said.
“We are waiting with eager anticipation for the next tranche,” Hartmann said. “We hope now … they can start budgeting it on a regular basis for some increment of kits each year.” (Source: Defense News)
21 Sep 15. Industry: Let’s Compete for UK Maritime Patrol. With publication of Britain’s strategic defense and security review (SDSR) little more than two months away, potential contenders for a likely requirement to plug a gap in maritime patrol were making their case at last week’s DSEI show for why the government should look beyond the Royal Air Force’s apparent preferred choice of buying the Boeing P-8 aircraft without having a competition. Five years ago, the