Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Tony Osborne
Airbus Helicopters is planning to halt production of its AS355 Ecureuil 2 (Twin Squirrel) twin-engine light helicopter in favor of its more modern products, the company has confirmed.
Defense

The Obama administration says it wants to accelerate the acquisition of a replacement heavy icebreaker to 2020 from 2022, begin planning for construction of additional icebreakers and call on Congress to help provide sufficient resources to fund the “critical” investments.
Defense

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier CVN 76 USS Ronald Reagan departed San Diego recently for Yokosuka, Japan, to replace the CVN 73 George Washington as the U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed aircraft carrier, patrolling the 7th Fleet area of responsibility in the Asia-Pacific region.
Defense

U.S. Marines in training used Office of Naval Research (ONR)-developed augmented-reality technology for the first time as part of recent live-fire training exercises, the Navy says.
Defense

LOCKHEED MARTIN has $430.9m U.S. Navy contract for spare parts, support equipment, Autonomic Logistics Information System upgrades, supply chain

The proliferation of private drones has drawn a predictable response from the self-defense community — shotgun-shell loads specifically designed to

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Defense

/site-files/aviationweek.com/files/uploads/2015/09/asd_09_02_2015_cht1.pdf Name: Raptor Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin Category/Type: Air-Superiority

The U.S. Air Force’s covert bomber project is further along than officials have let on, with years worth of risk-reduction work already done.
Defense

Soil-moisture data continues to flow from SMAP’s passive radiometer, but at lower resolution than would have been possible in combination with the radar.

“I’m looking at LRS-B in terms of its mission as it supports me," Stratcom chief Adm. Cecil Haney says. "Particularly the nuke mission."
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Swedish firm Saab is exploring the potential for new joint ventures and acquisitions to grow its U.K. footprint.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
FHI and Bell Helicopter will improve the 412 for the army’s UH-X requirement, the U.S. company says, although Japanese sources have said the changes will be slight.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
Australia should intensify its relationship with the U.S. by offering greater military support to Washington, including more access to its territory, according to a think tank analysis.
Defense

By Molly McMillin
Champion Aerospace and United Technologies have finalized a life-of-program long-term supply agreement to support UTC’s forecasted aerospace production ramp-up.
Business Aviation

By Mark Carreau
The 10-day “taxi flight” will exchange Soyuz spacecraft and personnel on the station as well as deliver experiments and tech demonstrations sponsored by the European Space Agency and Kazcosmos.
Defense

A U.S. Navy dive team replaced five blades on the guided-missile cruiser CG 68 USS Anzio’s port side propeller earlier this month at Naval Station Norfolk after cracks were found.

U.K. DEFENSE MINISTRY will spend more than £500m ($770m) modernizing Royal Navy’s flagship submarine base, HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane. Work will take 10 years to complete, starting in 2017, with upgrades to ship lifts, sea walls, jetties. U.S. AIR FORCE delayed launch of fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS-4) military comms satellite from Cape Canaveral, FL, to no earlier than Sept. 2, due to storm concerns.

As Congress prepares to return to Washington, Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) is taking a detour to Kiev this week to “get a direct look at the situation in Ukraine.” Meanwhile, Reed and SASC Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) are castigating the Pentagon over the U.S. Air Force’s Long Range Strike - Bomber program, which saw its 10-year cost estimate jump from $33.1 billion in the Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 budget plan to $58.4 billion in its 2016 request. “Such dramatic discrepancies ...

Selected U.S. military contracts for Aug. 24, 2015 U.S. ARMY Allied Mechanical Wisconsin , Grenville, Wisconsin, was awarded a $9,946,272 firm-fixed-price contract with options for 500-lb. iron practice bombs (BDU-50) for Air Force training requirements. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-12-C-0051). U.S. NAVY

A panel of outside experts who advise NASA on International Space Station (ISS) operations says the risk of using a new version of Russia’s Soyuz launch vehicle to orbit Progress cargo carriers may be “unacceptable."
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Thales has partnered with Polish defense electronics firm WB Electronics to offer an armed version of the Watchkeeper unmanned system for Poland’s Gryf (Gryphon) tactical UAV requirement.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
After first arriving in Germany, two F-22s were flown to Lask AB in Central Poland.
Defense

By Jay Menon
India’s Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved the purchase of 48 more Mi-17 V5 transport helicopters from Russia, but deferred a decision on acquiring 100 naval utility helicopters (NUH).
Defense

Russian defense electronics conglomerate Kret (Concern Radio-Electronic Technology) introduced a range of new electronic warfare (EW) systems at the 2015 MAKS air show here last week, including a new helicopter-borne jamming system and a high-power ground-based system designed to blind the widely used Boeing E-3 Airborne Warning & Control System (Awacs) and other systems using the S-band (2-3 GHz).
Defense