Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, November 16, 2015

The U.S. Air Force has chosen Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering as the first awardee under its program to mature rocket system propulsion technology in pursuit of a domestic alternative to the Russian RD-180 used for the Atlas V launch vehicle.

Cameras aboard the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft are tracking a slow but impressive transition from fall to winter at the south pole of the moon Titan.

Research and development organization Mitre has launched a prize challenge to help solve the problem of countering unauthorized small unmanned aircraft.

Airbus Helicopters has begun flight tests of its kerosene-fueled High Compression Engine H120 helicopter developed under the European Clean Skies initiative.

The U.S. Navy failed to properly define engineering services in a recent technology-insertion solicitation, the U.S. GAO says.

RAYTHEON completed Preliminary Design Review for Next Generation Jammer, which will replace ALQ-99 jamming pods on U.S. NAVY EA-18G Growlers; IOC planned for 2021.

The U.S. Army has conducted its first-ever intercept of a cruise missile target using the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system with target tracks from a non-PAC-3 radar. This marks a step forward in integrating U.S. missile defenses, a key goal for protecting deployed forces from attack. During a Nov. 12 flight test, a MQM-107 drone, emulating a cruise missile, flew a low-trajectory path, keeping it under the Patriot radar’s field of view. Two remote Sentinel radars, however, created a composite track of the threat.

The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine SSN 757 USS Alexandria arrived in its new homeport at Naval Base Point Loma in California from the East Coast after undergoing its regularly scheduled engineered overhaul at what the U.S. Navy called record speed.

Studies over Greenland reveal the warming atmosphere and ocean around it are hastening the rate at which the massive glaciers covering the landmass are melting.

To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Nov. 17-18—APEX Technology Conference, Newport Beach, California, http://apex.aero/Events/EventCalendar/tabid/213/Default.aspx