10 Feb 16. US Navy Halts Funding for Northrop Grumman’s Carrier-Based Combat Drone. As it reconsiders its unmanned aviation strategy, the Navy has decided to cease funding the X-47B bat-winged drone that made aviation history in recent years. The first-ever autonomous unmanned aircraft to be launched from and recovered on a carrier deck, the X-47B, is likely to run out of funding by the end of fiscal year 2016. The Navy has not requested money for the program in its fiscal year 2017 budget. The X-47B remains in “standby status” at the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River, Maryland, Capt. Beau Duarte, the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation program manager, told National Defense Feb. 10 in a statement. There is still a chance, however, that the aircraft could fly again, he said. The Navy received $250m in fiscal year 2016 for “risk reduction activities” for a future drone known as the unmanned carrier launched strike and surveillance, or UCLASS. The Naval Air Systems Command will “evaluate what surrogate aircraft activities, including further X-47B operations, are cost effective to meet these risk reduction goals,” Duarte said. The latest decision regarding the X-47B caps off a complex turn of events for this program since the Navy awarded Northrop Grumman a contract in 2007 to build a carrier combat drone. (Source: glstrade.com/National Defense)
10 Feb 16. Lawmaker Blocks Deal to Sell F-16s to Pakistan. A senior Republican senator is blocking the Obama administration’s subsidized sale of as many as eight new F-16 jet fighters to Pakistan because of Islamabad’s relationship with a militant group known for targeting U.S.-trained security forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Secretary of State John Kerry in a letter that he couldn’t allow the Obama administration to use taxpayer funds to support the sale of the jets. He cited attacks by the group known as the Haqqani network, saying the government in Islamabad continues to provide haven to its leaders. Mr. Corker, who recently returned from his fifth trip to Afghanistan, said the Pakistani government should be welcome to purchase the F-16s with its own money. The planned sale through the State Department’s foreign military sales program, announced last year, aims to reward Pakistan for its efforts against militants. “I do not want U.S. taxpayer dollars going to support these acquisitions,” Mr. Corker said in an interview. “While we’re spending tremendous amounts of U.S. dollars and certainly tremendous sacrifice in our men and women in uniform and by other agencies, they are working simultaneously to destabilize Afghanistan.” Mr. Corker said he was using his authority as a committee chairman to object single-handedly to the proposed sale. (Source: glstrade.com/WSJ)
10 Feb 16. The Danish Fighter Competition. This is the second posting in a number of updates in English that nytkampfly.dk will produce about the fighter competition in Denmark. The updates will be published continuously until the down selection. The purpose is to give an overview of the development of the Danish competition primarily with focus on the political process.
Recent developments
No [major] developments have taken place since the last update. But a few things have happened.
Denmark needs to focus more on arctic in the country’s future foreign policy. That was the key message in a statement from foreign minister Kristian Jensen. Defence minister Peter Christensen also gave his view on the future policy. He wants more depth in the Danish Armed Forces. And the forces should be able to be on even longer international missions than today.
The Social Democrats in the Danish Parliament will have to appoint a new defence spokesperson since Henrik Dam Kristensen is appointed first vice chairman of the parliament. A position formerly held by the former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Henrik Dam Kristense