Eastern Shore Drone Crash Caused by Faulty Tail

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the Internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.

Defense News reports the results of a Navy investigation of the crash of a Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft which took off from Pax River and crashed on the Eastern Shore last year. The aircraft did a nose dive from 18,000 feet after Northrop Grumman contractors lost control of it during what was supposed to be a four-hour test flight. The report blames a faulty actuator in the aircraft’s ruddervator.

RQ-4A Global Hawk Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator

CSC Applied Technologies L.L.C. of Lexington Park, Maryland gets a $60 million NAVAIR contract for range engineering and operations and maintenance services in support of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Divisions’ Atlantic Test Range and Atlantic Targets and Marine Operations Division.

The Washington Post reports a bit of optimism among contractors over the fiscal cliff band aid. The Pentagon’s comptroller says Congress’s stopgap measure has softened the blow to defense spending, Defense News reports. However, Robert Hale said some delay in this year’s defense budget is inevitable, Government Executive reports. Inside Defense says the Pentagon’s sequestration bill has shrunk (paywall) from $62 billion in 2013 to $45 billion. Washington Technology says the failure of Congress to permanently fix sequestration brings a mixed bag for contractors.

Chuck Hagel has been nominated to replace Leon Panetta as defense secretary, Aviation Week reports. See Panetta’s statement here. Defense News predicts a tough fight for Senate confirmation.

Time writes an obituary for the USS Enterprise.