In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Jun. 21, 2022

June 22, 2022

Kenya Airways’ Fahari Aviation Signs For Eve eVTOLs

Credit: Eve
eVTOL

Boeing Adds Former UTC Aerospace Chief Gitlin To Board

Dave Gitlin, the former head of erstwhile UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) and now chairman and CEO of air-conditioning giant Carrier, is joining the Boeing board of directors, the airframer and large defense prime contractor announced late June 21. Gitlin, 53, will join the board’s relatively new Aerospace Safety Committee, which was established in the aftermath of the 737 MAX fiasco, as well as its Finance Committee. His election to the board fulfills Boeing’s commitment, as part of the settlement of certain shareholder derivative claims in March 2022, to add another director with aerospace, engineering or safety-systems background. Credit: UTC Aerospace Systems

House Appropriators Criticize USAF’s F-15EX Acquisition Approach

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee is blasting the U.S. Air Force for not only changing how many Boeing F-15EXs it wants to buy, but how it is buying them. The panel, in a report accompanying its defense spending markup released June 21, notes the Air Force has, since the beginning of the F-15EX program in fiscal 2020, continually awarded funding using undefinitized contract actions (UCA), and has told lawmakers that trend will continue. Credit: U.S. Air Force

House Measure Would Add $37 Billion To Defense Topline, F/A-18s

A proposed amendment to the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) markup of the fiscal 2023 defense policy bill would add $37 billion to the panel’s topline and plus-up Pentagon acquisitions, including another addition to the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 program. The HASC is set to mark-up its proposal June 22, with the chairman’s mark released by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) calling for a topline of $802.4 billion, including funding for military-related programs for both the Pentagon and Energy Department. Credit: U.S. Navy Mass Communication Spec. 3rd Class Michael Singley

U.S. Awards Design Contracts For Lunar Nuclear Power Concepts

The U.S. Energy Department has awarded three conceptual-design contracts for Moon-based nuclear-fission powerplants for NASA’s Artemis missions starting in the 2030s. Under the “Fission Surface Power project” contracts, awarded by the department’s Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, funding will be provided for the design of initial concepts for a lightweight, 40-kW-class fission powerplant that would have a lifespan on the Moon of at least 10 years, NASA said June 21. Each contract is worth about $5 million. Credit: NASA

NASA Mulls Next Steps After Space Launch System Tanking Test

NASA managers on June 21 were reviewing results of a modified fueling test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which culminated at 7:37 p.m. EDT on June 20 when the onboard flight system software aborted the countdown after detecting a hydrogen leak that had surfaced earlier in the day. Previously engineers tried but failed to staunch the leak, which is in a quick-disconnect fitting that attaches from the tail service mast on the mobile launcher to the rocket’s core stage. Credit: NASA

Leonardo DRS-Rada Deal Creates New Defense Electronics Mid-Tier

Italian flagship aerospace and defense company Leonardo is buying Rada Electronic Industries, a publicly traded Israeli defense electronics and military radar specialist, to fold under Leonardo’s U.S.-based DRS brand, the companies announced June 21. The all-stock deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter, aims to beef up the Italian company’s exposure to growth segments inside the world’s largest defense market, i.e., defense electronics, counter-UAV, force protection and missile-related radars for the U.S. military.

Germany Advances Simplified Military Procurement Law

Germany’s government has approved simplified procurement legislation enabling the country’s military to spend its recently approved €100 billion ($105 billion) special fund for 2022 more easily. The Law on the Acceleration of Procurement Measures by the German Armed Forces bill has been approved by the country’s cabinet but still needs to be passed by lawmakers, with officials hoping to bring the bill into law before the German Parliament’s summer recess. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

Safran Invests In New Additive Technology For Engine Components

Safran has made an undisclosed investment in Sintermat, a five-year-old company specializing in an advanced sintering process for higher-performance engine components. With Sintermat’s technique, new types of powder may be used. The process can be largely automated at a factory’s scale, says Pierre Sallot, Safran Tech’s team leader for materials and innovative processes. “We are interested in nickel superalloys,” Sallot says. “We are talking about high added-value parts, the raw materials for which is strategic.” Credit: Safran

IAI Sells Scorpius-SP Jammer To Asian Air Force

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) says it has secured a “multimillion” deal to supply ELL-8222SB Scorpius-SP jammer pods to an unspecified Asian country. Based on the ELL-8222, but powered with active electronic scanned array technology and equipped with digital radio-frequency memory and other electronic countermeasure methods, the ELL-8222SB provides protection against multiple types of air-to-air and surface-to-air threats at the same time, according to IAI. Credit: Israel Aerospace Industries

Modified SLS Tanking Test Halted 20 Sec. Before Planned Cutoff

NASA successfully fueled its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the first time at the launchpad on June 20, but a hydrogen leak stymied plans for full countdown dress rehearsal. A software workaround allowed the launch team to resume the countdown in an attempt to get to 9 sec. before liftoff, just ahead of when the SLS’s four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines would ignite on an actual launch day. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

From Kenya Airways’ Fahari Aviation signs for Eve eVTOLs to Boeing adds former UTC aerospace chief Gitlin to board. Take a look at these and more in our daily roundup of aerospace & defense news.

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